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THE  PUBLISHERS'  ADVERTISEMENT. 


We  present  this  book  to  students,  teachers,  and  the  literary 
public  generally,  as  one  which,  for  both  its  subject-matter  and  its 
style  of  composition,  will  be  found  to  be  full  of  enchanting  in- 
terest. As  for  our  part,  we  have  spared  no  expense  in  respect  to 
typography,  paper,  and  mechanical  execution,  to  make  it  in  ap- 
pearance equal  to  its  own  inward  merits  in  fact.  While  it 
abounds  in  learning,  it  is  also  written  iu  a  spirited  con  amore 
style.  It  is  the  result  of  the  author's  enthusiastic  devotion  for 
years,  to  a  new  and  great  science,  which  one  of  the  first  linguists 
of  the  country  has  justly  said,  "  may  almost  be  called  the  science 
of  the  age.^''  It  has  been  prepared  on  the  basis  of  several  articles 
published  at  different  times  in  The  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  at  Andover, 
and  The  New  Englauder,  at  New  Haven ;  whieli  have  since  been 
re-written  and  greatly  enlarged  and  improved,  and  are  accom- 
panied with  philological  maps  and  tabular  views  of  great  interest. 
In  their  original  although  abbreviated  form  they  attracted  great 
attention  in  many  directions,  not  only  for  the  scholarship  and  re- 
search displayed  in  them,  but  also  for  the  beauty  of  their  style 
of  composition,  which  has  been  lavishly  commended  by  many  of 
our  best  scholars  and  writers  as  "  clear  and  vigorous,"  "  earnest 
and  spirited,''  "  beautiful,"  "attractive,"  "elegant,"  "fascinat- 
ing," and  "brilliant,"  and  placing  Mr.  Dwight,  in  the  language  of 
still  another,  "  among  the  most  eminent  writers  of  the  day." 

We  believe  that  no  book  has  appeared  from  the  press  iu  our 
country  for  a  long  time  that  will  command  iu  itself  a  larger  and 
more  eager  reception  than  this.  It  supplies  a  great  desideratum 
1 


to  the  students  of  language  among  us,  young  and  old ;  as,  with 
the  other  works  that  are  to  follow  it  from  the  author's  pen,  it  will 
make  the  study  of  the  science  of  Philology  not  only  feasible  but 
also  delightful  to  scholars;  and  will  give  to  multitudes  of  our 
literary  men  especially,  who  know  enough  of  the  discoveries  of 
modern  Philology  to  desire  to  know  more,  the  opportunity  to 
gratify  that  desire  upon  a  scale  that  they  will  greatly  value. 

The  book  is  likewise  fitted  not  only  for  general  reading,  but 
also  for  study  and  recitation,  in  schools  and  colleges,  like  any  of 
our  best  school  histories,  and  will  be  held  in  high  account  for 
historical,  philosophical,  linguistic  and  even  rhetorical  purposes 
alike,  wherever  it  is  so  used.  Its  preparation  has  been  hailed, 
aud  indeed  solicited  in  advance  by  several  leading  teachers  in 
different  States,  from  the  felt  want  of  such  a  help  to  a  higher 
style  of  linguistic  study,  than  hitherto. 

We  subjoin  a  few  of  the  notices  taken  of  the  original  articles 
as  they  appeared  from  time  to  time,  which  have  incidentally  come 
to  hand. 

"  We  have  read  Mr.  Dwight's  essay  on  '  The  Indo-European 
Languages,'  in  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  with  great  pleasure  :  the 
style  giving  attractiveness  to  the  instruction  of  a  subject  removed 
from  the  ordinary  line  of  thought.  We  commend  it  not  only  to 
classical  scholars,  who  will  hail  new  light  in  comparative  grammar, 
lexicography,  and  ethnology,  but  to  ministers  generally  and  the 
still  lajger  community  of  general  scholars  who  abound  in  our 
country. ' ' — In  dependent. 

"  This  is  an  article  (the  same)  of  great  value,  showing  careful 
and  scholarly  investigation." — Evangelist. 

"  This  is  an  able  and  instructive  discussion." — The  Intelli- 
gencer. 

*'  This  admirable  essay  ('  The  Science  of  Etymology')  is  to  ap- 
pear, as  we  understand,  together  with  other  kindred  articles  written 
by  Mr.  Dwight  for  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  in  a  published  volume  ; 
and  we  believe  we  speak  the  sentiments  of  those  who  are  conver- 
sant with  this  important  but  recondite  subject,  when  we  say  that 
the  forthcoming  hook  will  be  a  valuable  and  honorable  addition 
to  American  literatin'e.'''' — New  York  Observer.  (By  Dr.  John 
J.  Owen,  Professor  in  the  Free  Academy.) 


lU 

"  The  History  of  Modern  Philology. — The  science  of  philol- 
ogy is  assuming  so  much  importance  in  its  relations  to  histori- 
cal questions  and  to  the  great  problem  of  the  unity  of  the 
race,  that  the  general  scholar  must  at  least  comprehend  its 
principles,  and  keep  pace  with  its  results.  The  sketch  of  the 
history  of  Philology  in  the  New  Englandcr,  from  the  competent 
and  practised  hand  of  3Ir.  Dwight,  -wiil  be  of  much  service  to  read- 
ers not  versed  in  the  science  itself" — Independent. 

"  I  have  read  with  much  pleasure  Mr.  Dwight's  articles  jn  the 
Bibliotheca  Sacra.  I  am  also  informed  that  he  has  a  work  in 
preparation  on  philology.  If  suited  to  my  purposes  I  would 
be  glad  to  use  it  as  a  text-book  in  my  higher  classes." — C.  W. 
Smythe,  Cataivha  College,  North  Carolina. 

"  I  have  examined  with  great  interest  Mr.  Dwight's  essays  on 
Philology,  in  reference  to  using  them  in  our  seminary  ;  and  I 
am  convinced  that  they  will  be  invaluable  to  our  students,  not 
only  for  their  views  of  the  historical  unity  and  principles  of 
climatic  change  in  language,  but  for  their  philosophic  generaliza- 
lions.  I  therefore  earnestly  hope  that  they  will  be  published  in 
a  form  adapted  to  our  classes." — Mrs.  Sarah  L.  Willard,  Princi- 
pal of  the  Troy  Female  Seminary. 

'■  Mr.  Dwight's  views  show  such  rare  and  extensive  research, 
the  results  of  such  discrimination  and  analysis,  of  such  historical, 
ethnological,  and  philosophical  acquaintance  with  words,  lan- 
guages, roots,  branches,  themes  and  their  logical  and  comprehen- 
sive classifications,  ancient,  very  ancient,  and  modern,  European 
and  Asiatic,  that  we  have  been  feasted  as  well  as  strengthened  and 
enlightened  with  their  consecutive  display,  and  congratulate  the 
public  as'  well  as  ourselves,  in  prospect  of  their  gathered  riches 
being  permanently  communicated  from  the  press,  in  a  practical 
form  for  general  use,  in  all  our  learned  institutions." — Kev.  Dr. 
Samuel  H.  Cox,  Ingham  University. 

"  I  did  not  know  who  in  this  country  could  have  written  the 
article  in  the  New  Englander,  on  Modern  Philology,  without 
hashing  it  up  from  other  authors.  It  would  seem  to  be  quite 
within  the  range  of  ]Mr.  Dwight.  How  he  can  do  so  much  an 
invalid  like  nie  can  hardly  see." — Professor  Francis  A.  March, 
Lafayette  College,  Penn. 

"  I  am  delighted  to  learn  that  jMr.  Dwight  intends  to  bring 
out  all  his  articles  on  philology  together  in  one  work.  I  shall 
look  for  it  with  great  eagerness." — Edward  P.  Crowcll,  Professor 
of  Latin,  Amherst  College. 


IV 

'  I  have  read  several  articles  in  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  by 
Mr.  Dwight,  and  am  greatly  pleased  with  the  earnest  and  spirited 
manner  in  which  they  are  written,  as  well  as  with  the  thorough 
research  which  they  display.  He  owes  it  to  the  cause  of  education 
to  collect  and  enlarge  them  somewhat,  and  prepare  them  for 
publication  in  a  book.  They  would  form,  I  think,  a  text-book  in 
many  schools,  and  be  welcomed  by  hundreds  of  private  readers 
and  learners.  Such  a  work  ivould  ideally  supply  a  desideratum. 
I  feel  exceedingly  gratified  that  he  has  turned  his  attention  and 
devoted  so  mucli  labor  to  this  important  branch  of  science,  which 
indeed  may  be  almost  regarded  as  the  science  of  the  age.  He 
must  let  the  world  have  the  benefit  of  his  labors." — Asahel  C. 
Kendrick,  D.  D.,  Professor  of  Greek,  Rochester  University. 

"  The  articles  published  by  Mr.  Dwight,  I  have  enjoyed 
much.  They  show  a  wide  range  of  stud}",  and  a  fine  appreciation 
of  the  great  laws  and  j)rinciples  of  language.  The  republication 
of  them  in  a  separate  form  will  be  a  valuable  service  to  the 
cause  of  philology." — Samuel  H.Taylor,  LL.  D.,  Principal  of 
Phillips'  Academy,  Andover,  Mass. 

A.  S.  BAIINP:S  &  BURR, 

51  &  53  John  Strkkt,  New  York. 


DWIGHT'S 
MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 


;  MODERN  PHILOLOGY: 


|te  giscobcrics 


HISTORY    AND    INFLUENCE, 


MAPS,   TABULAR   VIEWS,    AND   AN  INDEX. 


BY 


BENJAMIN  W.  myiGRT, 

AUTHOR     OF     "  THE     HIGHER     CHRISTIAN     EDUCATION." 


NEW  YORK : 

A.  S.  BARNES  &  BURR,  51  &  53  JOPIN  STREET. 

1859. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1859,  by 
A.  S.  BAENES  &  BUER, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern  District 
of  New  York.  « 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


I. 

HISTORICAL  SKETCU  OF  THE  INDO-EUROPEAN  LANGUAGES. 

PAGE. 

Introduction,  with  List  of  Authors  consulted 5-10 

Philosophic  Divisions  of  Languages 14 

Peculiarities  of  Chinese  Languages 15 

The  Agglutinative  Languages 16-180 

The  Intlected  Languages 18-190 

Other  Possible  Classifications 19-20 

The  Semitia  Languages 20-28 

Connection  of  Hebrew  and  Phosnician  Languages 20-22 

Contrasts  of  the  Semitic  and  Indo-European 22-25 

Influence  of  Judaism  on  Indo-Europeanism 25-27 

Climatic  Influences 27 

Area  of  Indo-European  Development 28 

Classification  of  Indo-European  Languages 29 

I.  The  Arian  Family-pair 29-48 

Arian  Migrations 31 

Arian  Climatology 32 

1st.  The  Indian  Family 32-45 

(1)  The  Sanskrit 32-42 

Vedic  Sanskrit  and  Vedas 33-40 

Devanagari  Alphabet 36-40 

Pali  and  Prukrit  Dialects 41-43 

(2)  The  Gypsy  Language 43-45 

Gypsy  Correspondences 44 

2d.  The  Iranian  Family 45 

(1)  Zend,  Zend  Avesta,  &c 45-47 

(2)  Old  Persian,  (3)  Pchlevi,  (4)  Pazend,  (5) 

New  Persian 47 

3d.  The  Ossetian ;   4th.  The  Armenian 48 


U  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

II.  Gr^co-Italic  Family-pair 48-112 

Ist.  The  Greek  Family 49-6« 

False  Theory  of  Connections  of  Greek  and  Latin  49 

Dialectic  Developments  of  the  Greek 50 

Gi'eek  and  Latin  Correspondences 52 

The  Pelasgic  or  Pioneer  Period 53-54 

The  Hellenic  or  Classic  Period 54-6) 

Value  of  an  Early  History  of  Asia  Minor 56 

Language  as  a  Mass  of  Ethnologic  Records ....  57 

Zend,  Welsh,  and  Greek  Correspondences 58 

Area  of  Greek  Development 60 

Philological  Value  of  Homeric  Poems 61 

Giese's  Sketch  of  Pre-Hellenic  Period 62-63 

The  Romaic  or  Modern  Greek 64 

The  Albanian  Language 65 

Albanian  Correspondences 66 

Schleicher's  Historical  Epochs  of  the  Greek ...  67 

Greek  Climatology 68 

2d.  The  Italic  Family 70-112 

(1)  lapygians,  (2)  Etruscans 70-74 

(3)  Italians 74-97 

Italic  Home-growth 74—75 

(«)  Umbro-Samnite  Dialects 75-79 

(6)  Latin 79-112 

Latin  Climatology 80-82 

Peculiarities  of  Roman  Mind 82 

§  1.  Historical  View  of  Latin  Language 

and  Literature 83-96 

Classical  Latin 83-85 

Middle  Latin 85-87 

Romanic  Dialects 87-112 

Germanic    Influences    on    Romanic 

Languages 83-93 

Specimens  of  Ante-Media3val  Latin. . .  94 

Do.        Grseco-Romanic  Elements  95 

Do.        Germano-Romanic  do.  95 

§  2.  The  Romanic  Tjanguages 97-112 

(1)  The  Italian  and  its  Literature 97-99 

(2)  The  Vrallachian          do 99-100 

(3)  The  Spanish               do 100-105 

(4)  The  Portuguese         do 105-107 

(5)  The  Provengal           do 107-108 

(6)  The  French                 do 108-111 

Correspondences  in  Romanic  Languages.  112 


CONTENTS.  Ill 

PACK. 

III.  The  Lcttic  Family 113-117 

1st.  The  Lithuanian  and  its  Peculiarities •113-115 

2d.  The  Old  Prussian IIG 

3d.  The  Lettish IIG 

IV.  The  Slavic  Family 117-130 

Historical  Eras  of  this  Famil}^ 117 

Their  Internal  Connections 118 

Their   Different   Alphabets :    Cyrillic,    Roman,  Ilie- 

ronymic 119 

First.  South-Easteru  Slavic 120 

1st.  The  Russian  and  its  Literature 121-3 

2d.  The  Bulgarian            do.             1 23-4 

3d.  The  Servian                do.             125 

Second.  Western  Slavic 120-130 

Slavonic  Correspondences 120 

1st.  The  Lechish :  Poland  and  the  Polish 127-128 

2d.  The  Tschechish,  3(1.  the  Sorbish,  4th.  the  Po- 

labish 128 

The  Area  of  Slavism  and  its  Neighborhood 129 

V.  The  Gothic  or  Germanic  Family 130-150 

The  First  Historical  Appearance  of  the  Goths. .,.-...  130-131 

1st.  The  Low  German 132-145 

(1)  The  Norse  Languages,  Old  and  New 132-133 

(2)  The  Anglo-Saxon 133-143 

History  of  the  Anglo-Saxons 134 

Elements  of  the  English  Language 134-138 

Its  Greatest  of  Autliors :  Shakspeare. . .  130 

Its  Comparison  with  German 137 

Its  Correspondences  with  Sanskrit 138-9 

Its  Orthoepical  and  Orthographical  Pe- 
culiarities   140 

American  Provincialisms 140-3 

(3)  The  Frisic,  (4)  the  Low  Dutch 144-146 

2d.  The  High  German 145-151 

Et3-mology  of  the  Word  German 146 

Peculiarities  of  the  German 147 

Different  Eras  of  its  Development 147 

Luther's  Influence  upon  it 148 

Its  Comparison  with  tlie  English 149 

VL  The  Celtic 

Prichard's,  Jones',  and  Bunsen's  Views 151 

Early  Westward  Movements  of  the  Celts 152 

Celtic  Poetry  :  Os.sian,  &c 153 


IV  CONTENTS. 

PAQB. 

Present  Remains  of  Celtic ' 154 

Present  Cieographical  Position  of  Celts 155 

Celtic  Correspondences 156 

1st.  The  Kymric  Languages 156- 158 

2d.  The  Gadhelic        do 157-159 

Comparison  of  Welsh  and  Irish  Numerals 159 

Celtic  and  Sanskrit  Correspondences 160 

Inferences:  1st.  Unity  of  the  Race 161 

2d.  Power  of  Ph3'sical  Influences 163 

3d.  Smallness  of  Man's  Inventiveness 164—176 

Origin  of  Language  as  Divine 168 

Development-Theory  of  Word-germs 168-174 

,  Max  Mi'iller's  Theory  of  its  Human  Origin 173-175 

'  Bunsen's  Theory  of  Millennial  Periods 176 

4th.  Each  Language  to  be  Studied  in  its  Connections  177-179 

Value  of  Scientific  Etymology 177 

Sanskrit  Philology  in  the  University-Course. . .  178 

Tabular  Views. ." 181-190 


II. 

IIISTOEY  OF  MODERN  PHILOLOGY. 

Philology :  its  Meaning  and  Different  Phases 192 

Grammar  and  the  Alexandrian  Grammarians 194 

Influence  of  the  Reformation  on  Modern  Scholarship 195 

State  of  Linguistic  Culture  in  the  18th  Century 197 

Infidel  Attempts  to  Pervert  Philology 193 

Leibnitz  the  Early  Prophet  of  Philology 199 

Efforts  of  Catharine  II.  of  Russia 199 

Formation  of  Asiatic  Society 200 

Adelung's  IMithridates 200 

Indo-Europeanism  rersvs  Indo-Germanism 201 

Sanskrit  Literature :  its  Character,  &c 202 

East  India  Company :  Ilalhed,  Jones 203 

First  English  Translations  of  Sanskrit 204 

Colebrooke,  H.  11.  Wilson 205 

Frederic  Schlegel :  the  INIan  and  his  Sei"vices 206-9 

Augustus  W.  Schlegel,  his  Brother 210-2 

Bopp's  First  Philological  Work 212 

Rask :  his  Travels  and  Researches 212-215 

Jacob  Grimm's  Teutonic  Grammar 215 

Ilis  Scale  of  Correspondences 216-218 


CONTENTS.  V 

FAGB. 

His  Present  Labors 218-219 

Francis  Bopp:  his  Great  Learning  and  Great  Deeds.      ..    ..  219-225 

A.  F.  Pott,  as  a  Philologist ...  225 

William  Humboldt 226 

Burnouf  and  Eichhofif  in  France,  183C) 227  -230 

Albert'Giese's  ^olischer  Dialekt 230 

Senary  and  Hofer ..      .  231-232 

Ahrens  on  the  Conjugation  in — jxi .  233 

Diintzer  and  Kaltschmidt , . .  234 

Diefenbach  and  Schleicher 235 

George  Curtius  and  Diez 23G-237 

Diez's  View  of  Philology. 238 

Present  Condition  of  Philology  in  Germany 239 

Ernst  Curtius  and  Theodore  IMomrasen 240 

Zeitschrift  filr  Vergleich.    Spracliforschung 241 

Aufrecht,  Kirchhoft'  and  Benfey 241 

Heyse,  Kuhn,  and  Weber 242-243 

Eapp's  Grammar  and  Phonography 244-5 

Rapp  and  Diez  Compared 246 

Fritsch  on  Particles 247 

Sanskrit  Philology  in  England 248 

Prichard  and  Rosen 249 

Donaldson :  his  Learning,  Labors,  and  Vanity 250-2 

Winning's  Comparative  Philology 252-4 

Richard  Garnett's  Articles 255 

Max  Mailer's  Survej'  of  Languages 255 

Bunsen's  Phil.  Universal  History 256 

English  Writers  on  Teutonic  Elements  in  English 25G-257 

State  of  Philology  in  America 257 

Philological  Authors  C.ompared  together 258 

Philology  Arranged  according  to  Subjects 258-259 

Relative  State  of  Philology  in  Different  Countries  of  Europe  260 

Classical  Philology,  as  such 260-263 

Heyne,  Buttmann,  Diiderlein 261-262 

Inferences:  1st.  The  Charms  of  Linguistic  Stud}' 264 

2d.  Resolution  of  Grammatical  Difficulties 266-268 

3d.  The  Relative  Imperishablcness  of  Language. . .  .268 

4th.  The  Scope  of  Analogy  in  Language 269 

5th.  The  Mutual  Connection  of  Languages 269 

6th    The  Light  Shed  by  Philology  on  Ethnography  270 

Weber's  Sketch  of  Primeval  Arian  Ilistor}- 272-274 


VJ  CONTENTS 

III. 

SCIENCE  OF  ETYMOLOGY. 

PAGE. 

T.  The  General  Proportions  and  Relations  of  the  Subject  278-287 

English  Etymology  Dependent  on  Classical 278 

The  Ileal  Connections  of  all  Languages 279-281 

The  Peculiar  Philological  Relations  of  the  Latin 282 

The  Great  Breadth  of  English  Etymology 284 

Our  Present  Languages  but  Linguistic  Herbariums.  .  285 

IT.  The  History  of  Etymology 287-311 

1st.  Its  Popular  Empirical  Treatment. 287-289 

Ancient  Legends  and  Mythology   288 

False  Etymologies  of  a  Recent  Sort 289 

2d.  Its  Literary  Empirical  Treatment 290-306 

The  Theory  of  the  Derivation  of  Latin  from 

Greek 291 

L.  Ross's  Recent  Attempts  to  Revive  it 292 

History  of  Lexicography,  (Latin,   Greek,  and 

English) 292-311 

Freund's  Latin  Dictionary 293-297 

Schwenck's  and  Valpy's  Dictionary 297 

Jiikel  and  Nork's  Ideas  of  Latin.  &c 297 

Klotz's  New  Latin  Dictionary 299 

Passow,  Pape,  and  Kaltschmidt  in  Greek  Lexi- 
cography    300-301 

Web.ster's  English  Dictionary 302-30G 

3d.  Its  Exact  Scientific  Treatment 3CG-311 

The  Grimms'  Great  German  Dictionary 30G-308 

Indo-Europeanism  Essential  to  all  Etymology.  309 

Etymology  an  Inductive  Science  .*..... 311 

III.  The  Constituent  Elements  of  Etymology  as  a  Science  311-331 

1st.  Those  of  Comparative  Etymology 312-327 

(1)  Comparative  Phonology 312-322 

(2)  Comparative  Lexicography 322-32-5 

(3)  Comparative  Grammar 325-327 

Criteria  of  Relative  Antiquity  of  Lan- 
guages    320-327 

2d.  Those  of  Specific  Etymology 328-331 

(1)  The  Originals  of  Words 328 

(2)  Comparative  Forms 328 

(3)  Derived  Forms 329 

(4)  Interior  Logical  Etymology 329 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

PAGE. 

IV.  Determinate  Tests  of  Etymology 331-337 

1st.  Of  Comparative  Etymology 332-333 

(1)  Correspondence  in  Base  or  Theme 332 

(2)  Minute  Mutual  Resemblances  332 

(3)  Euphonic  Laws  of  Definite  Scope 332 

(4)  Certain  Specific  Axioms 333 

2d.  Of  Specific  Etymology 333-337 

(1)  The  Genius  of  the  Language 333-3-34 

(2)  Naturalness  of  Derivation 835 

(3)  Determinate  Archaic  Forms 335 

(4)  Double  Forms 335-336 

(5)  Dialectic  Changes  and  Differences 337 

V.  Advantages  of  the  Study  of  Etymology 337-347 

1st,  The  High  Pleasure  of  it 338-341 

2d.  Its  Advancement  of  the  Higher  Mental  Dis- 
cipline      341-344 

3d,  Its  Value  in  Acquiring  Power  of  Speech 344-347 


INTRODUCTION 


It  has  been  the  Author's  pastime  for  several  years, 
to  employ  himself  in  the  study  of  Comparative  Phi- 
lology. When  wearied  by  the  many  toils  of  his  pro- 
fession, as  a  teacher,  he  has  found  constant  refreshment 
or  exhilaration  rather,  day  by  day,  in  devoting  his 
attention  to  the  history,  literature,  researches  and 
results  of  this  new  Science.  No  study  is  more  pleas- 
ing or  profitable  to  a  classical  scholar,  or  even  to  a 
general  student  of  an  earnest  type,  than  that  of  Modern 
Philology :  so  multiform  are  its  relations,  so  surprising 
its  discoveries,  and  so  splendid  the  train  of  its  at- 
tending influences.  The  excitement  of  perpetual  eff'ort 
to  find  its  hidden  wonders,  keeps  ever  growing  unto 
the  end. 

The  Author  has  written  what  he  has,  because  he 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

must :  necessity  has  been  iipon  him :  the  fire  kindled 
within  his  heart  has  found  its  own  vent :  he  coukl  not 
keep  to  himself  the  pleasure  that  he  constantly  ex- 
perienced, in  his  pathway  of  investigation.  And  if 
his  papers  had  all  perished  by  accident,  after  the  care- 
ful preparation  of  years,  the  pleasure  of  the  ever- 
present  intention  cherished  and  executed  with  patient, 
hopeful,  happy  toil  so  long,  to  participate  with  as  many 
as  possible  the  bliss  that  had  welled-up,  all  the  time, 
in  his  own  silent  heart  unknown  to  others,  woidd  have 
still  glowed  on  undimmed,  as  a  great  permanent  fact 
to  him  in  his  life-work :  illuminating  not  only  the 
whole  conscious  past,  as  it  was  transpiring,  but  also 
the  memory  of  it  when  gone  forever  from  the  view. 
He  would  have  still  testified  to  his  own  ear,  if  not  to 
others,  that  verily  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to 
receive.  If  the  student  finds  but  a  moiety  of  the 
gratification,  in  the  results  here  reached  or  announced, 
which  the  author  himself  has  experienced ;  and  surely 
it  can  be  but  a  moiety  of  his,  in  either  time  or  degree : 
he  Avill  enjoy  still  another  pleasure  in  his  philological 
labors,  which  w^ill  crown  all  those  received  before  with 
its  own  added  light  and  beauty. 

No  one,  who  has  not  undertaken  such  a  work,  can 
have  any  just  conception  of  the  amount  of  thought  and 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

time,  requisite  to  pass  in  thorough  critical  review  the 
great  number  of  facts,  principles  and  relations,  pertain- 
ing to  the  many  topics  connected  Avitli  the  science  of 
comparative  philology ;  and  the  processes  of  close,  se- 
vere analysis,  discrimination,  comparison  and  judgment, 
to  be  repeated  over  and  over  again,  from  every  possible 
angle  of  observation,  in  order  to  come  to  a  clear  and 
stable  decision  of  matters  having  so  many  elements  of 
separate  and  connected  interest.  But  the  joy  has  all 
the  time  more  than  equalled  the  toil. 

Should  any  think,  that  the  rhetorical  element  is  al- 
lowed, perchance,  too  free  play  to  any  degree  in  affairs 
of  such  high  science,  the  plea  is  offered  in-  self-defence, 
that,  whatever  there  may  be  of  it,  came  spontaneously 
from  the  depths  of  the  subject  itself;  which  is  full  to 
the  brim  of  its  own  lively  appeals  both  to  the  reason  and 
the  imagination.  Nor  does  the  Author  think,  in  intro- 
ducing this  new  study,  so  favorite  in  Germany,  to  the 
regards  of  the  great  community  of  general  scholars 
here,  who  are  just  beginning  to  open  their  eyes  upon 
its  charms,  that  he  should  ruthlessly  strip  it  of  all  its 
blossoming  fulness  of  beauty,  in  order  to  show  in  more 
sharp  and  unclothed  outline,  to  eyes  that  relish  dissect- 
ed rather  than  living  forms,  the  mere  unadorned  frame- 
work of  its  branches.     Nor  could  he  think  of  inviting, 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

exclusively,  mere  technical  scholars  in  philology  to  the 
literary  banquet  which  he  would  fain  provide  for  them : 
fit  audience,  indeed,  if  small ;  because  of  the  very  lim- 
ited number  who  have  as  yet  acquired,  in  this  country, 
any  complete  special  knowledge  of  its  facts  and  princi- 
ples. His  purpose  has  been,  on  the  contrary,  to  do 
what  he  could  to  attract  the  greatest  possible  number 
of  eyes  to  the  gloiy  of  the  New  Philology. 

The  articles  composing  the  present  volume  were 
published :  the  first  and  third,  at  different  times,  in  the 
Bibliotheca  Sacra,  and  the  second  in  the  New  Eng- 
lander ;  and  were  much  compressed  in  their  details,  in 
order  to  adapt  their  length  to  the  limits  of  those  valu- 
able Quarterlies.  They  have  been  all  since  carefully 
rewritten  and  enlarged,  and  particularly  the  first,  which 
is  now  of  more  than  twice  its  previous  dimensions  and 
value.  The  maps  and  tabular  views  of  the  different 
languages  and  index  of  contents  will  aid  much,  it  is 
believed,  in  the  comprehension  of  the  whole  subject. 

The  Author  loves  to  look  hopefully,  upon  the  sure 
and  speedy  progress  of  American  scholarship  to  heights 
of  attainment  almost  unthought  of  now.  We  are  not 
to  be  always  spoken  of  lightly  as  mere  borrowers  of 
others,  and  as  accomplishing  at  the  best  only  superficial 
results.     There  is,  in  the  qualities  of  activity,  enter- 


INTRODUCTION.  » 

prise,  ingenuity  and  endurance,  that  distinguish  us  as 
a  people,  a  substantial  preparation  for  the  highest  scien- 
tific and  artistic  development  of  the  American  mind 
and  character,  in  all  the  varied  departments  of  scholarly 
acquisition.  So  many  of  our  finest  minds  are  ere  long 
not  to  be  led,  as  now,  like  oxen  garlanded  for  sacrifice, 
to  the  altars  of  Mammon ;  and  American  scholarship, 
like  American  literature,  which  has  hitherto  surpassed 
it  in  the  signals  of  its  growth  and  greatness  that  it  has 
waved  exulting  before  the  nations,  is  to  stand  up  in  the 
highest  proportions,  attained  among  any  people,  for 
breadth  and  strength  and  beauty  of  aspect,  in  the  sight 
of  an  admiring  world. 

If  this  humble  effort  may  suffice  to  kindle  any  new 
enthusiasm  among  the  younger  scholars  of  the  land, 
who  aije  just  lighting  their  torches  at  the  fires,  which 
other  hands,  now  growing  feeble  from  age,  have  kin- 
dled :  to  God  alone,  who  has  given  all  the  strength,  re- 
sources and  opportmiities  for  doing  so,  be  the  glory 
and  the  praise. 

Dwight's  Rural  High  School,  ) 

Clinton,  Oneida  Co.,  N.  Y.,  July  1,  1859.     j 


Among  the  Autliors  consulted  in  the  preparation  of 
the  first  article,  are  the  following : — 

Grote's  History  of  Greece ;  Smith's  do. ;  Niebuhr's  His- 
tory of  Rome ;  Niebuhr's  Lectures  on  Ancieut  History ; 
Brown's  History  of  Greek  Classical  Literatm'e  ;  Brown's  Ro- 
man Classical  Literature ;  Donaldson's  New  Cratylus ;  Don- 
aldson's Varronianus  ;  Taylor's  Ancient  History ;  Bunsen's 
Philosophy  of  Universal  History;  Bopp's  Comparative  Gram- 
mar, by  Eastwick  ;  Bopp's  Vergleichende  Grammatik  (Neue 
Auflage) ;  Rapjj's  do. ;  Eichhoffs  Vergleichung  der  Sprachen; 
Grimm's  Geschichte  der  Deutschen  Sprache ;  Diefenbach's 
Gothisches  Worterbuch ;  Giese's  Aeolischer  Dialekt ;  Momm- 
sen's  Romische  Geschichte ;  Schleicher's  Geschichte  der 
Sprachen  Europa's ;  Heyse's  System  der  Sprachwissenschaft ; 
Diez'  Grammatik  der  Roman.  Sprachen  ;  Ahrens'  De  Lin- 
gua3  Greece  Dialectis ;  Aufrecht's  Umbrischen  Sprachdenk- 
maler  ;  Lersch's  Sprachphilosophie ;  Winning's  Comparative 
Philology ;  Garnett's  Philological  Essays ;  Monier  Williams' 
Sanskrit  Grammar ;  Kuhn's  Beitrage  zur  Sprachforschung ; 
Gesenii  Monumenta ;  Max  MuUer's  Survey  of  Languages 
Asiatic  Researches;  Frederic  Schlegel's  ^sthetical  Works 
Prichard's  Natural  History  of  Man ;  Prichard's  Eastern 
Origin  of  the  Celtic  Nations ;  Journal  of  American  Oriental 
Society ;  Du  Gauge's  Glossarium ;  Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall 
of  the  Roman  Empire  ;  Gieseler's  Ch.  Hist. ;  Buckle's  Hist, 
of  Civilization  in  England  ;  Blair's  Chronology ;  etc.,  etc. 


AN    HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF    THE    INDO-EUROPEAN 
LANGUAGES. 


MODEEN  PHILOLOGY. 


I. 

AN  HISTORICAL  SI^TCH  OF  THE  INDO-EUROPEAN 
LANGUAGES. 

The  design  of  the  following  essay,  is  not  to  enter  into 
the  details  of  ethnography,  as  such,  except  so  far  as 
they  may  subserve  directly  the  one  object,  of  better 
unfolding  the  connection  and  growth  of  different  lan- 
guages ;  or,  to  give  any  distinct  history  of  the  literature 
of  each  language,  but  to  adhere  closely  to  the  text 
furnished  in  its  title.  For  the  same  reason,  neither 
chronology  nor  geography  occupy  any  very  conspicuous 
position.  While  it  has  required,  at  times,  as  much 
effort  in  the  selection  of  materials,  to  determine  what 
to  reject  as  what  to  employ ;  it  will  be  found,  it  is 
hoped,  that  the  golden  mean  has  been  attained,  between 
too  great  diffuseness  on  the  one  hand  and  too  much 
condensation  on  the  other. 

It  is  not  an  easy  task  for  curious  minds  to  learn, 
to  leave  dark  what  is  dark,  and  to  state  supposed  facts 


14  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

with  no  more  assurance,  than  the  actual  evidence  of 
their  existence,  according  to  the  most  careful  measure- 
ment of  its  dimensions,  justifies.  Almost  all  earnest 
writers,  accordingly,  on  the  early  history  of  nations  and 
of  languages,  have  undertaken  to  be  luminous  amid 
obscure  data,  and  to  interpret  the  past  in  the  same 
style  of  self-confident  certainty,  in  which  the  interpret- 
ers of  prophecy  usually  open  the  scroll  of  revelation 
for  the  future.  The  great  Niebuhr,  and  more  recently 
the  lesser  Donaldson,  strikingly  exemplify  this  tendency. 

But  it  is  still  more  difiicult  for  a  generous  mind,  to 
conceal  within  itself  some  new"  light  that  serves  greatly 
to  illuminate  and  cheer  its  own  vision ;  and  from  weak, 
unmanly  over-caution,  to  understate  truths  that  desen^e 
a  large  and  bold  utterance. 

The  terms  of  comparison  between  different  lan- 
guages are  limited,  of  course,  to  that  mere  moiety  of 
words  which  is  preserved  to  us  in  books.  Could 
that  other  large  portion  of  each  language,  when  in  its 
fullest  state  of  expansion,  which  is  now  lost  to  us,  be 
recovered,  many  of  ■  the  results  that  are  gained  by 
philological  analysis  would  receive  an  assurance  and 
an  amplification,  which  would  be  grand  in  both  their 
proportions  and  their  benefits. 

The  different  languages  of  the  world  may  be  ar- 
ranged philosophically,  in  three  great  classes  : 

1.  Those,  consisting  of  mere  separate,  unvaried 
monosyllables,  like  the  Chinese.     There   are  no  Ian- 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  1*5 

guages  of  this  kind,  but  the  Chinese  and  a  few  Indo- 
Chinese  languages  in  its  neighborhood,  as  the  Brahman, 
Siamese,  &c.,  which  were  originally  without  doubt 
identical  with  it.  In  exact  antipodes  to  the  monosyl- 
labism  of  this  class  of  languages,  stands  the  polysyl- 
labism  of  the  North  American  languages,  with  their 
wonderful  tendencies  to  concatenated  formations :  for 
which  reason  they  have  sometimes  been  called  the 
polysynthetic  languages ;  and  yet,  in  their  interior 
grammatical  constitution,  both  of  these  classes  of 
languages  are  of  the  same  general  grade  of  character. 
The  words  composing  the  Chinese  language  are  all 
so  many  distinct  monads  unrelated  to  each  other,  and 
without  any  organization  that  adapts  them  for  mutual 
affiliation.  There  is,  accordingly,  an  utter  absence  of 
all  scientific  forms  and  principles  of  grammar,  in  a 
language  thus  composed  of  a  mere  congeries  of  separate 
units.  Each  w^ord  therefore  exists,  in  a  close,  sharply 
defined,  permanent  status  of  its  own  ;  and  that  play  of 
light  and  shade,  which  words,  containing  each  so  many 
different  senses,  possess  in  other  languages,  is  here  lost. 
Some  fifty  thousand  characters  are  accordingly  employed 
in  the  Chinese  tongue,  to  express  the  wants  of  speech. 
These  are  some  of  them  simply  pictorial  still ;  while 
others  are  idiographic  now  in  theii*  form,  although 
many,,  if  not  most,  of  this  class  are  probably  but 
abbreviations  of  original  pictorial  representations  of 
the  object   described.      That  class  of  theorists,   w^ho 


16  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

account  for  the  origin  of  language,  as  others  do  of 
nature,  by  what  is  termed  the  development-theory, 
love  to  represent  language  as  having  been  at  the  first 
in  the  same  crude  inorganic  state,  in  w^hich  we  now 
find  the  Chinese  :  conceiving  of  it,  as  they  do,  as  a  mere 
human  invention  or  rather  incident,  a  sort  of  wild 
indigenous  product  of  the  social  state.  Language  as 
such,  on  the  contrary  is,  it  is  believed,  a  beautiful 
piece  of  Divine  mechanism  :  contrived  by  Hiin  who 
made  man,  and  who  made  him  to  speak  both  to 
Himself  and  to  his  fellows ;  and  therefore  the  nearer  to 
its  first  beginnings  that  we  ascend  in  our  investigations, 
the  more  fidl  and  complete  we  find  it  in  its  forms. 

2.  Those  formed  by  agglutination.  This  is  an 
advance  on  the  preceding  in  style  of  construction,  as 
here  words  do  show  some  appetency  and  affinity  for 
each  other,  although  in  the  simplest  of  all  modes  of 
combination :  mere  cohesion.  Such  are  the  Tatar, 
Einnish,  Lappish,  Hungarian  and  Caucasian  languages  : 
sometimes  called  the  Nomadic  or  Turanian  languages. 
Words  in  these  languages  combine,  without  any  elective 
affinity,  in  but  a  mere  mechanical  way.  They  have 
not  toward  each  other,  either  any  of  the  active,  or  any 
of  the  sensitive  receptive, capabilities  of  living  organisms. 
Prepositions  are  joined  in  them  to  substantives,  and 
pronouns  to  verbs,  as  if  flexion-endings  ;  but  never  so 
as  to  make  a  new  form  of  the  original  word,  as  in  the 
inflective    languages.       The    words   thus    placed   in 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  17 

juxtaposition,  still  retain  each  of  tliem  tlieir  own 
personal  identity  unimpaired.  These  languages  are 
thus  classified  in  one  group,  almost  exclusively  on  the 
ground  of  correspondence  in  their  grammatical  struc- 
ture, rather  than  of  any  additional  lexical  agreement. 
Rask,  Castren  and  Gabelentz,  the  great  investigators  of 
the  Turanian  languages,  all  unite  in  testifying  that 
they  are  bound  together  by  ties  of  far  less  strength 
than  the  Indo-European ;  while  they  also  maintain 
with  equal  firmness,  that  they  all  belong  fundamentally 
to  one  race.  This  race  has,  from  the  first,  occupied 
more  of  the  surface  of  the  earth,  than  either  of  the 
others  ;  as,  in  nature  hitherto,  the  aggregate  extent  of 
wilderness  has  always  been  greater  than  that  of  the 
gardens  of  the  world.  Like  the  Chinese  language,  the 
Tatar  family  of  languages  reigns  over  an  immense 
territory  in  Asia  •  and  covers  wdth  its  folds  the 
Mantchoos,  Mongols,  and  the  whole  wide-spread 
Turkish  race  in  the  east,  and  in  the  west  the  Pinnish, 
Lappish  and  Magyar  tribes  of  men  :  stretching  west- 
ward, from  the  shores  of  the  Japan  Sea  to  the  neigh- 
borhood of  Vienna ;  and  southward,  from  the  northern 
Arctic  Ocean  to  Affghanistan  and  the  southern  coasts 
of  Asia  Minor.  The  Caucasian  languages  lie  spread 
out  between  the  Black  and  Caspian  seas ;  and  are 
historically  too  insignificant  to  deserve  much  attention. 
One  of  these,  the  Abchasic,  is  said  to  be  the  lowest  of 
all  this  class  of  languages,  in  its  grammatical  constitu- 


18  HISTOllICAL    SKETCH    OF 

tion  :  having  no  flexion  of  the  noun,  and  no  distinction 
of  number  or  person  in  the- verb. 

The  aggUitinative  languages  have  some  special  pe- 
culiarities that  are  quite  remarkable.  One,  is  the  ar- 
rangement of  governed  words  before  those  governing 
them  ;  so  that  even  prepositions  are  placed  after,  instead 
of  before,  the  nouns  in  regimen  with  them,  and  are 
properly  therefore  postpositional  in  their  character. 
Another,  is  the  law  of  vowel-harmony,  by  which  added 
syllables  are  made  to  correspond,  as  being  hard,  middle 
or  soft*  with  the  vowels  of  the  radical  syllables. 

3.  The  inflected  languages.  These  are  aU  of  a 
complete  interior  organization  :  complicated  with  many 
mutual  relations  and  adaptations,  and  thoroughly  sys- 
tematized in  all  their  parts.  There  is  all  the  diflerence 
between  this  class  and  the  monosyllabic,  that  there  is 
between  organic  and  inorganic  forms  of  matter  ;  as  also 
the  diff'erence  between  them  and  the  agglutinative  lan- 
guages is  like  that  in  nature  between  mineral  accretions 
and  vegetable  growths.  In  their  history  lies  embosomed 
that  of  the  civilized  portions  of  the  world.  The  boun- 
daries of  this  class  of  languages  are  the  boundaries  of 
cultivated  humanitv.  The  lansfuaGfes  of  Africa,  which 
have  been  but  recently  revealed  to  European  eyes  by 
missionary  zeal,  are,  especially  the  Congo  and  Bechuana 
families  of  them,  deserving  to  a  considerable  degree 
of  the  title  of  inflected  languages,  but  only  in  limited 
forms  and  directions.     Words  are  linked  together  in 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  19 

continuecl  discourse  by  a  few  prefixes,  sufRxes  and 
inserted  syllables  of  a  simple  sort :  the  same  suffix 
being  duplicated  on  the  connecting  as  well  as  on  the 
connected  word ;  so  that  the  style  of  inflection  is  one 
which  would  seem  to  a  cultivated,  logical,  artistic  gram- 
marian of  the  Grecian  and  Latin  school,  to  be  in  many 
cases  but  a  piece  of  tawdry  syntactical  patchwork. 

The  classification  which  we  have  presented  of  the 
various  languages  of  the  world,  is  based  on  their  outward 
differences  of  form.  In  reference  to  their  inward  structu- 
ral differences,  they  might  be  divided  into  two  great  fam- 
ilies :  1 .  The  ungrammatical,  as  the  Chinese  and  North 
American.  2.  The  grammatical  or  organic  languages, 
namely,  the  Semitic,  the  Indo-European  and  the  Tura- 
nian. The  great  basis  of  identity  in  each  of  these  classes 
of  languages  lies  in  the  fact,  that  they  are  inflected  in 
the  same  way  respectively,  or,  which  is  the  same  thing, 
that  the  grammar  of  each  class  is  identical  in  all  the 
families  of  the  class.  In  respect  to  their  phenomenal 
or  historical  differences,  they  are  capable  of  still  another 
arrangement :  1 .  Those  which  have  utterly  perished, 
and  they  must  have  been  many.  2.  Those  called 
"  dead ; "  or  those  that,  like  the  Sanskrit,  Hebrew, 
Greek,  Latin  and  Gothic,  are  no  more  used  in  the 
daily  commerce  of  men's  thoughts  and  wants,  but  are 
yet  preserved  in  books  in  all  their  ancient  strength  and 
beauty.     3.  The  living  languages  of  the  world. 

Two  great  races,  speaking  inflected  languages,  have 


20  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

shared  between  them  the  peophng  of  the  historic  por- 
tions of  the  earth  :  the  Semitic  and  the  Indo-European. 
On  this  account  their  languages  have  sometimes  been 
called  the  political  or  state-languages  of  the  world,  in 
contrast  with  the  appellation  of  the  Turanian  as  No- 
madic. In  each  of  the  three  great  classes  of  languages : 
the  monosyllabic,  the  agglutinated  and  the  inflected, 
there  may  be  found  isolated  instances  of  forms  that 
occur  in  cliaracteristic  abundance  in  the  others.  Thus, 
both  monosyllabic  and  agglutinated  forms  occm'  in  the 
inflected  languages ;  and  yet  the  distinctions  described 
separate  the  different  classes,  in  the  mass,  quite  abso- 
lutely from  each  other. 

The  Semitic  family  of  languages  consists  of  three 
principal  divisions  :  the  Hebrew,  the  Aramaean  and 
the  Arabic*  With  the  Hebrew,  the  leading  ancient 
language  of  the  Semitic  family,  the  Canaanitish  or 
Phoenician  language  stands  in  the  most  intimate  rela- 
tion. Canaan  was  the  primitive  home  of  the  Hebrew 
tongue.  It  was  a  spoken  language  in  Judea  from  the 
days  of  Moses  (b.  c.  1500)  to  those  of  Nehemiah  (b. 
c.  450).  It  was  essentially  the  language  of  the  Phoe- 
nician race,  by  whom  Palestine  was  inhabited  before 

*  To  the  Arabic  belongs  also  the  Ethiopic,  as  a  branch  of  the 
Southern  Arabic.  The  Aramaean  is  called  Syriac  in  the  form  in  which 
it  appears  in  the  Christian  Aramgean  literature ;  but  Chaldee,  as  it 
exists  in  the  Aramaean  writings  of  the  Jews;  and  this  is  still  spoken 
by  some  tribes  near  Damascus  and  by  the  Nestorian  Koords.  To  the 
Chaldee  is  closely  allied  the  Samaritan. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  21 

the  immigration  of  Abraham's  posterity.  It  became 
the  adopted  language  of  his  descendants,  and  was 
transferred  with  them  to  Egypt  and  brought  back  to 
Canaan.  Whatever  variations  there  may  have  been  in 
the  speech  of  those  dwelling  in  Tyre  and  Sidon,  com- 
pared with  that  of  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  they 
were  very  slight.  Even  the  language  of  Numidia  is 
supposed  by  Gesenius,  to  have  been  pure,  or  nearly 
pure  Hebrew.*  The  remaining  fragments,  accordingly, 
of  the  Phoenician  and  Punic  languages  agree  with  the 
Hebrew.  The  Semitic  languages  were  native  in  the 
countries  lying  between  the  Mediterranean,  the  Arme- 
nian mountains,  the  Tigris  and  the  southern  coast  of 
Arabia ;  or,  in  other  words,  in  South-western  Asia.  The 
Arabic  is  the  only  present  living  language,  of  any  great 
importance,  belonging  to  this  family.  Since  the  con- 
quest of  Syria  and  Palestine,  in  the  middle  of  the  sev- 
enth century,  it  has  swept  from  its  presence,  as  with  a 

*  Augustine,  himself  a  native  Carthaginian,  said  in  his  day,  that 
"the  Hebrevr  and  Carthaginian  languages  differ  but  little.  The 
Hebrew,  Carthrfginian  and  Phoenician  languages,  are  of  one  origin 
and  character."  So  Hieronymus  :  •'  The  Carthaginian  language  is,  to  a 
great  extent,  allied  with  the  Hebrew ;  and  is  said,  indeed,  to  flow  forth 
from  the  fountains  of  the  Hebrew."  Gesenius  himself  adds,  that 
"  this  is  to  be  thoroughly  maintained,  that  the  Phoenician  language,  in 
the  main,  and  indeed  as  to  almost  every  thing,  agrees  with  the  Hebrew, 
•whether  you  consider  their  roots  or  the  mode  of  forming  and  inflect- 
ing their  words :  a  point  which  it  is  superfluous  to  illustrate  with  ex- 
amples." Gesenii  Monumenta,  §  3.  Chap.  ■'  Linguae  Phoeniciaj  mdoles 
et  cum  Hebraja  necessitudo." 
3 


22  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

breath  of  flame,  the  Hebrew  and  the  Syriac  in  their 
own  native  dwelhng-pLace.  This  Language  now  covers, 
with  its  mantle  of  Oriental  beauty,  a  large  part  of 
Western  Asia  and  Northern  Africa.  It  exhibits  also  in 
the  Maltese,  which  is  but  a  dialect  of  the  Arabic,  a  soli- 
tary representative  of  itself  in  Europe.  Like  the  Ger- 
man in  the  w^estern  world  in  so  many  other  respects, 
this  Eastern  language  is  like  it  also  in  this,  that  it  has 
diff'used  its  elements  wonderfully  among  the  constitu- 
ents of  many  suiTounding  languages :  as  the  Turkish, 
the  New  Persian  and  Syriac ;  while,  in  Europe  also,  it 
has  left  its  impress  ineffaceably  on  the  Spanish  lan- 
guage, upon  whose  features,  as  well  as  upon  the  face  of 
whose  Hterature,  the  Moorish  tint  is  unmistakable.  In 
its  grammatical  system  or  inward  constitution,  it  affords, 
at  the  same  time,  both  the  most  normal  and  the  most 
improved  style  of  structure  of  all  the  Semitic  languages. 
The  Hebrew,  when  compared  wdth  it  in  respect  to 
either  its  grammar  or  its  lexical  resources,  is  decidedly 
inferior. 

The  Semitic  languages  differ  widely  from  the  Indo- 
Em'opean,  in  reference  to  their  grammar,  vocabulary 
and  idioms.  The  consonantal  system,  for  example,  of 
all  the  Semitic  languages  is  singular  in  the  fact,  that 
every  root  consists  of  three  letters ;  while,  in  the  other 
great  famihes  of  languages,  they  may  be  of  one,  two, 
or  tlnree,  and  are  indeed  seldom  of  three.  And  yet, 
although  the  Semitic  and  Indo-European  families  do 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  23 

not  stand  in  any  close  relationship  to  each  other,  a  re- 
mote connection  between  them  cannot  be  denied.  So 
far  as  yet  traced,  the  Semitic  seems  to  be  the  elder 
family  of  the  two,  but  its  limits  and  its  functions  have 
ever  been  of  a  far  narrower  range.  The  old  Egyptian, 
one  of  this  family,  is  the  most  ancient  language  noAV 
known.  It  was  a  form  of  speech  that  seems  to  have  had 
force  enough  in  itself,  to  rise,  like  the  sun  emerging  from 
a  bank  of  mist,  just  out  of  a  state  of  mere  monosyllabic 
development.  Every  thing,  indeed,  Egyptian  was  from 
the  first  strangely  unique,  and  was  petrified  by  phys- 
ical or  moral  causes,  when  but  half  complete,  beyond 
the  power  of  further  change.  We  have  been  also  re- 
cently informed  of  other  ante-historical  branches  of  the 
Semitic  family,  beside  the  old  Egyptian,  as  of  the  old 
Assyrian  and  Babylonian.  Clay  tablets  have  been  found 
by  thousands  at  Nineveh,  containing  treatises  on  almost 
every  subject,  and  also  grammars,  dictionaries,  histo- 
ries and  works  on  geography,  astronomy  and  painting  : 
"presenting,"  as  Rawlinson,  one  of  its  explorers,  re- 
marks, "  a  perfect  cyclopaedia  of  Assyrian  science."  So 
also  the  characters  found  on  the  bricks  in  the  disen- 
tombed palaces  at  Babylon  have  been  clearly  proved  to 
be  Semitic.  These  antique  languages  lived  and  died, 
in  the  darkness  of  an  otherwise  utterly  unmemoriahzed 
past. 

Indo-European  literatiu-e,  although  not  of  so  high 
antiquity  as  the  Semitic,  far  surpasses  it  in  variety, 


24  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

flexibility,  beauty,  strength  and  luxuriance.  The  ulti- 
mate roots  of  the  Semitic  tongues  are  few  in  number ; 
and  the  formation  of  words  by  prefixes  and  affixes  is 
simple,  and  in  most  cases  similar ;  while,  in  the  Indo- 
European,  we  have  a  range  and  style  of  words  and  in- 
flections adapted  to  the  truest  and  finest  possible  ex- 
pression of  thought  of  whatever  height  or  depth,  or  of 
whatever  scope  or  bearing. 

The  Semitic  languages  might  justly  be  called,  on  a 
general  scale  of  comparison,  the  metaphorical  languages, 
on  account  of  the  great  preponderance  in  them  of  the 
pictorial  element ;  and  the  Indo-European,  the  philo- 
sophical languages,  as  descriptive  of  the  prevailing  style 
of  their  higher  literature.  The  two  living  languages  of 
these  two  great  families  that  most  resemble  each  other, 
in  combining,  to  a  high  degree,  both  the  philosophical 
and  pictorial  element  in  their  natural  constitution  and 
literature,  are  the  Arabic  and  the  German.  The  Semitic 
nations  have  had  either  a  stronger  love  of  place  and  of 
home  than  the  Indo-European,  or  a  greater  aversion  to 
effort  and  adventure ;  since,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Arabians,  whose  spirit  of  conquest,  like  that  of  the 
Turks  of  the  Turanian  family,  must  be  ascribed  to  the 
fierce  propagandist  influence  of  Mohammedism,  they 
have  ever  dwelt  within  close  narrow  bounds,  while  in 
them,  however,  they  have  often  manifested  intense 
energy.  In  hieroglyphs,  the  Semitic  mind  first  re- 
corded its  thoughts  and  wants  and  achievements,  in 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  25 

ancient  Egypt ;  and  afterwards  another  branch  of  the 
same  family,  the  Phoenicians,  foremost  in  their  day  in 
commerce  and  the  arts,  invented  alphabetic  letters  of 
which  all  the  world  has  since  made  use.  The  Semitic 
nations  also  first  ripened  in  arts  and  arms ;  but,  hke 
precocious  children,  early  failed  to  yield  the  fruit  that 
they  had  promised.  The  Semitic  and  Indo-European 
families  are  complementary  to  each  other  in  their  char- 
acteristics ;  and  almost  as  strongly  so  as  are  the  mascu- 
line and  feminine  constitution  of  mind,  respectively,  to 
each  other. 

What  influence  the  Semitic  family,  especially  the 
religionized  Judaic  portion  of  it,  has  had  directly  or  in- 
duectly  on  the  development  of  any  or  all  of  the  Indo- 
European  family,  it  would  be  a  matter  of  capital  in- 
terest, were  there  sufficient  data  for  such  an  examination, 
to  investigate  and  decide.  There  are  a  few  streaks  of 
light,  at  any  rate,  upon  this  subject,  visible  in  the  hori- 
zon of  history.  Babylonia  was  greatly  influenced  by 
Judaic  commerce,  religion  and  literatiu-e,  as  early  as 
the  days  of  Solomon  (b.  c.  1000).  Phoenicia  also, 
over  which  reigned  contemporaneously  with  him  King 
Hiram,  the  grandfather  of  Dido,  who  founded  Carthage, 
was,  both  by  its  proximity  and  the  sameness  of  its  lan- 
guage, brought  powerfully  under  Hebrew  influence. 
Persia  was  filled  with  Jews,  as  we  know,  in  the  days 
of  Daniel,  Ezra,  Nehemiah  and  Queen  Esther,  in  the 
fourth,  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  before  Christ.     What 


26  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

quickening  influences  and  what  new  ideas  were  thus 
set  in  motion,  throughout  these  various  countries,  and 
indeed  throughout  also  India  in  the  East,  Egypt  and 
Arabia  on  the  South,  and  even  Greece  in  the  West,  who 
can  say  ?  They  must,  indeed,  have  been  many  and 
great.  Judea  was  designed,  hke  all  the  rest  of  God's 
works,  to  have  the  chief  ends  and  uses  of  her  existence 
outside  of  herself.  While  Judaism  was  not  essentially, 
like  Christianity,  a  Missionary  Institute,  but,  owing  to 
the  stern  necessities  of  the  times,  was  built  for  defen- 
sive rather  than  offensive  operations  ;  stiU,  it  was  thus 
fenced  in  with  privileges  and  illuminated  with  light 
from  above,  that  it  might  be  seen  over  all  the  earth, 
that  God  who  made  the  earth  and  heavens.  He  is  Lord ; 
and  that  blessed  is  that  people  whose  God  is  the  Lord. 
The  Holy  Land  was  made  the  garden  of  the  Lord,  that 
the  leaves  of  its  trees  might  be  for  the  healing  of  the 
nations.  Phoenicia  and  Egypt  were  the  countries  that 
were  specially  brought  into  full  and  long  contact  with 
the  truths  and  influences,  that  made  Jerusalem  glorious 
for  beauty.  The  Phoenicians  and  Hebrews  were  as  in- 
timate for  that  day  in  commerce  and  friendship,  as  the 
English  and  Americans  in  our  times.  And,  as  for  the 
Egyptians,  not  only  were  the  Israelites  tabernacled  by 
God  among  them  for  more  than  four  hundred  years ; 
but  ever  afterwards  they  were  held  together  by  ties  of 
intercourse  and  commerce  more  or  less  firm  :  as,  Solo- 
mon married  his  wife  in  Egypt,  and  thither,  a  thousand 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  27 

years  afterward,  Joseph  and  Mary  fled  with  the  infant 
Jesus  from  the  face  of  Herod.  But  Phcenicia  and 
Egypt  exerted,  in  their  turn,  a  very  great  influence  on 
the  early  progress  of  the  European  world.  Erom 
Phoenicia  came  the  alphabet  to  Greece;  and  from 
them  both  came  stores  of  wisdom  and  influences  intel- 
lectual and  moral,  which,  by  their  very  essential  invisi- 
bility, hid  themselves,  even  in  the  time  of  their  greatest 
power,  from  observation.  Is  it  not  pleasant  to  think 
that  the  Jewish  theocracy,  erected  like  a  tower  of  light 
by  our  great  Eather  above  among  the  people  of  the  old 
world,  was  set  up  in  love,  not  only  for  those  who  dwelt 
under  its  immediate  effulgence,  but  also  for  the  other 
nations  that  looked  on  it  from  afar,  for  whose  good  his 
heart  yearned  as  tenderly  as  it  does  for  that  of  all  men 
now. 

The  Semitic  nations  have  lived  with  remarkable 
uniformity  on  vast  open  plains ;  or  wandered  over  mde 
and  dreary  deserts,  by  which  the  negative  side  of  their 
character  has  been  more  cultivated  than  the  positive. 
The  lot,  on  the  contraiy,  of  the  Indo-European  nations, 
has  been  ever,  with  as  remarkable  uniformity,  cast  by  a 
favoring  Providence  amid  rivers,  mountains,  vales  and 
gorges ;  where  they  might  gaze  upon  an  ever-changing 
sky,  and  breathe  a  vigorous  ever-changing  air;  and 
where  they  would  be  required  to  accoutre  themselves, 
continually,  for  new  enterprises  and  endeavors. 

The  Indo-European  nations  and  languages   have 


28  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

spread  themselves,  in  the  eastern  hemisphere,  over  the 
vast  area  from  the  mouth  of  the  Ganges,  to  the  British 
Islands  and  the  northern  extremities  of  Scandinavia. 
They  comprise  the  Sanskrit,  Zend,  Old  Persian,  Greek, 
Latin,  Lettic,  Slavonic,  German  and  Celtic  families  of 
tongues ;  and  these  languages  compare  quite  as  closely, 
one  with  another,  in  both  their  lexical  and  grammatical 
elements,  as  do  the  Romanic  languages :  the  Italian, 
Wallachian,  Spanish,  Portuguese  and  Prench,  with  each 
other.  As  we  go  eastward  geographically  and  back- 
ward historically,  we  find,  as  a  general  fact,  a  greater 
and  greater  approximation  constantly  to  the  pure  Indo- 
European  types  of  words,  as  found  in  the  Sanskrit; 
and,  as  w^e  go  westward,  less  and  less ;  until,  in  the 
Celtic,  the  most  western  European  language,  we  find 
the  fewest  traces  left  of  the  common  original  mother- 
tongue.  It  is  indeed  but  a  recent  discovery,  made  by 
the  late  distinguished  Prichard,  that  the  Celtic  actually 
belongs  to  the  same  great  parent  stock  of  languages. 
Still  more  recently,  by  the  discovery  of  the  Old  Egyp- 
tian language  and  the  comparison  of  the  Celtic  lan- 
guages with  it,  the  conviction  is  reached,  as  Bunsen 
claims,  that  the  original  Celtic  is  more  ancient,  not  only 
than  the  Teutonic  branch  of  languages,  but  even  than 
the  Sanskrit  itself:  forming  a  sort  of  connecting  link 
between  the  Old  Egyptian  and  the  Sanskrit,  in  the 
stages  of  Imgual  development.  If  this  view  of  the 
Celtic  shall  be,  at  any  time  hereafter,  really  substan- 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  29 

tiated,  then  to  the  Celtic  must  be  conceded  the  honor, 
now  given  to  the  Sanskrit  and  otherwise  to  be  given  to 
it  still,  of  retaining  in  itself  more  fully  than  any  other 
one  of  the  sister-languages  still  preserved  to  us,  that 
ancient  mother-tongue,  now  lost  in  its  pure  primal 
form  from  the  eyes  of  men ;  from  which  yet  all  the  sub- 
sequent languages  of  the  civilized  world  have  been  de- 
rived. The  real  connection  also  of  the  Celtic  and  the 
Sanskrit,  as  belonging  to  the  same  family,  will  remain 
unchanged ;  while  the  order  of  sequence  between  the 
two  will  be  dii'ectly  alternated. 

The  most  ancient  languages  of  the  Indo-European 
stock  may  be  grouped  in  two  family -pairs  :  the  Arian 
family -pail"  and  the  Grseco-Italic  or  Pelasgian  family- 
pair.     The  whole  series  of  families  is  as  follows  : 

I.  The  Arian  family-pair. 

n.  The  Grseco-Italic,  or  Pelasgic  family-pair. 

m.  The  Lettic  family. 

IV.  The  Slavic  family. 

V.  The  Gothic  family. 

VI.  The  Celtic  family. 

The  Celtic  is  placed  last,  because  it  is  yet  least  ex- 
plored, and  its  full  definite  relations  have  been  least 
ascertained. 

I.  The  Arian  family-pair.  This  comprises,  as  the 
title  indicates,  two  leading  families  : 

1st.   The  Indian  family. 
2cl.    The  Iranian  family 


30  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

The  word  Arian  (Sanskrit  Arya,  Zend  Airya)  signi 
fies  noble,  well-born :  a  name  applied  by  the  Ancient 
Hindus  to  themselves,  in  contradistinction  to  the  rest 
of  the  world,  whom  they  considered  base-born  and  con- 
temptible. This  is  the  oldest  known  name  of  the  entire 
Indo-European  family.  With  this  name  all  chance  to 
trace  the  pedigree  of  the  family  back  to  the  early  dawn 
of  time  ends.  Prom  what  circumstances  of  social  con- 
trast in  their  favor,  they  came  to  apply  this  self-flatter- 
ing title  to  themselves  it  is  impossible  to  say.  As  the 
words  "  Slavonic  "  and  "Irish"  (from  Airya)  contain 
the  same  utterance  of  national  pride  in  them,  the  name 
is  probably  but  another  evidence  of  mens'  disposition 
in  all  ages,  not  to  esteem  others  as  themselves.  So  the 
Greeks  called  the  rest  of  the  world  "  barbarians ;"  and 
the  Jews  termed  the  Gentiles  "  dogs."  Arii  was  the 
ancient  name  of  the  Medes :  a  name  afterAvard  pre- 
served in  the  Aria  and  Ariana  of  the  Greek  geogra- 
phers. Aryavarta,  the  country  lying  between  the  Him- 
alaya and  the  Vindhya  mountains,  the  primeval  abode 
of  their  fathers,  is  now  regarded  as  their  "  holy  land  " 
by  the  Brahmins.  There,  in  that  high  table-land  of 
central  Asia,  two  thousand  years  and  more  before 
Christ,  our  Hindu  ancestors  had  their  early  national 
home.  So  also  to  Bactria  near  the  Indus,  the  earliest 
traditions  of  the  Persians  point  as  the  ancient  and 
romantic  seat  of  their  race.  Iran  then,  a  country 
bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Caspian,  on  the  south  by 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  31 

the  Indian  Ocean,  on  the  east  by  the  Indns,  and  on  the 
west  by  the  Euphrates,  is  the  spot  to  wliich  all  the  lan- 
guages of  the  civilized  world,  ancient  and  modern,  now 
unite  in  pointing  as  tlie  place  of  their  origin. 

The  absolutely  primeval  home  of  the  original  Arians 
cannot  now  be  determined.  In  tracing  any  of  the  great 
currents  of  Arian  migration  back  from  whatever  direc- 
tion to  their  central  source,  we  soon  find  om'selves,  here 
as  on  every  other  topic  of  ultimate  inquiry,  groping  iri 
irremediable  darkness.  There  have  been  historically 
two  great  streams  of  Arian  overflow :  the  one  southern, 
including  the  Brahmanic  Arians  of  India  and  the  Persian 
followers  of  Zarathustra  (Zoroaster) :  the  other  northern 
at  the  outset  but  western  in  the  end,  embracing  the 
great  families  of  nations  in  north-western  Asia  and  in 
Europe.  But  for  this  great  western  Arian  manifestation 
of  intellect,  enterprise  and  character,  the  history  of  the 
world  hitherto  would  have  had  but  little  significance : 
as,  all  of  the  present  and  most  of  the  past  civilized  na- 
tions of  the  world  belong  to  this  branch  of  humanity ; 
and  as,  for  some  reason  or  for  many,  all  the  early  Semitic 
tendencies  to  high  and  broad  enlargement  were  of  veiy 
short  durgftion  and  circumscribed  influence.  Like  trees, 
at  first  loaded  with  blossoms  but  subsequently  shorn  of 
their  riches  by  killing  frosts,  they  gave  a  larger  promise 
than  they  afterward  realized  in  the  result.  The  south- 
ern Arian  migrations  stagnated  in  the  valleys  which 
they  occupied ;  as  in  them  they  were  walled  in  from  all 


32  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    0¥ 

danger  of  invasion  from  the  restless  nations  in  the  west, 
by  the  snow-towers  of  the  Himalaya  on  the  north,  the 
expanse  of  the  Indian  Ocean  on  the  south  and  the 
deserts  of  Bactria  on  the  west.  There,  in  the  rich  val- 
leys of  the  Indus  and  its  many  streams,  with  no  motive 
to  labor  from  poverty  of  soil  and  no  need  of  self-protec- 
tion against  aggressive  assaults  upon  their  life  of  ease, 
the  common  mass  sank,  like  the  other  nations  of  the 
earth  that  have  not  been  constantly  goaded  by  the  sharp 
spm'  of  necessity,  into  a  life  of  base  inglorious  inactivity. 
The  more  studious  and  thoughtful,  the  natural  quality 
of  whose  minds  forbade  voluntary  torpidity  of  intellect, 
wasted  their  powers  in  roaming  about  aimlessly  in  the 
regions  of  dreamy  mystic  subjectivity.  The  western 
nations  have  been  forced  by  circumstances  into  a  more 
objective  life ;  and,  under  the  stimulus  of  physical 
influences  better  fitted  to  test  and  temper  the  character 
and  by  constant  friction  one  upon  the  other,  have  been 
brought  into  a  state  of  individual  and  social  activity 
and  progress ;  the  products  of  which  seem  as  marvellous 
to  an  Oriental  mind,  as  can  any  of  the  gorgeous  fancies 
of  eastern  fable  to  a  youthfid  reader  among  us. 

1.  The  Indian  family. 

Of  this  the  Sanskrit  is  the  most  remarkable  .- 
standing  farthest  east  and  at  the  farthest  distance  of 
time,  full-orbed  in  its  brightness,  casting  splendor  on 
every  language  around  it  and  on  every  language  to  be 
found  in  the  long  procession  of  different  tongues  related 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  33 

to  it  from  that  day  to  this.  In  the  Vedas,  it  has  come 
down  to  us  from  the  borders  of  the  primitive  world,  on 
the  margin  of  which  the  Genius  of  history  never  phmted 
its  foot.  The  Vedic  Sanskrit  was  a  spoken  language 
in  India,  as  late  probably  as  1500  years  before  Christ, 
or  five  hundred  years  before  the  days  of  Homer  and 
Solomon,  who  were  contemporaries.  The  original 
Veda  the  Hindus  believe  to  have  been  revealed  by 
Brahma ;  and  to  have  been  preserved  by  tradition, 
until  it  was  arranged  in  its  present  order  by  a  sage, 
who  thence  obtained  the  name  of  Vyasa  or  Vedavyasa 
or  compiler  of  the  Vedas.  These  Indian  Scriptures, 
which  are  all  lyrical  in  then*  form,  he  divided  into  four 
parts,  named  Rich,  Yajush,  Saman  and  Atharvarna : 
each  with  the  common  denomination  Veda,*  wdiich 
means  primarily  knowledge  or  science,  and  is  now  used 
to  denote  the  whole  mass  of  Hindu  sacred  literature. 
The  fourth  of  these  Vedas  is  undoubtedly  more  modem 
than  the  first  three,  and  like  in  this  respect  the  Itihasa 
and  Puranas,  which  together  constitute  a  fifth  and  stiU 
more  recent  Veda.  In  the  Vedas  themselves  they  have 
a  fabulous  origin  ascribed  to  them  :  "  the  Rigveda  from 
fire,f  the  Yajurveda  from  air,  and  the  Samaveda  from 
the  sun."      Some   Indian  commentators    ascribe   the 

*  Lat.  video,  Gr.  oJ8a  for  FoTSa :  Germ.  "Wissen  :  Eng.  wit.  wist 
viz. : — vide,  vision,  etc. 

t  Asiatic  Researches.  Art.  by  H.  T.  Colebrooke,  vol.  viii.  (year 
1808.) 


34  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

fable  to  the  fact  that  the  Rigveda  opens  Avith  a  hymn 
to  fire,  and  the  Yajurveda  Avith  one  in  which  air  is 
mentioned;  but  others  see  in  it  a  transcendental 
phOosophy  of  the  primeval  order  of  things  in  the 
miiverse.  The  Vedas  are  properly  a  compilation  of 
prayers,  called  Mantras  when  spoken  of  by  themselves, 
and  Brahmanas  or  precepts  and  maxims.  In  the  three 
principal  Vedas,*  prayers  employed  at  solemn  public 
rites,  called  Yajnyas,  are  found  :  those  in  metre  being 
called  Rich,  those  in  prose  Yajush,  and  those  designed 
to  be  chanted  Saman.  The  prayers  of  the  fourth  or 
Atharvarna  Veda,  were  used  on  different  occasions  and 
for  different  purposes  from  the  preceding ;  as  for  im- 
precations on  enemies.  And,  as  in  all  other  parts  of 
the  world  where  thinking  men  have  lived,  as  in  the 
different  schools  of  philosophy  in  Greece  and  Rome, 
the  different  sects  of  Christendom  and  even  the  dif- 
ferent monastic  orders  of  popery ;  which  yet  makes 
boast  of  possessing  a  permanent  leaden  uniformity  of 
character,  as  if  it  were  meritorious  to  be  in  a  state  of 
utter  metaphysical  and  moral  stagnation  :  so  in  India, 
the  minds  of  men  have  separated  and  scattered  the 
pure  white  light,  as  they  deemed  it,  received  from  their 
Vedas,  into  many  distinct  sects  and  schools  of  theology, 
of  every  varied  hue  of  thought. 

*  In  former  daj'S  learned  priests  took  their  titles  from  the  number 
of  Vedas  with  which  they  were  conversant.    Thus,  one  who  had  studied 
two  Vedas  was  called  Dwivedi :  one,  who  had  studied  three,  Ti'ivedi 
and  one  who  had  studied  four,  Cbaturvedi. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  35 

It  has  been  stated  that  each  Veda  consists  of  two 
parts :  the  Mantras  or  prayers  and  the  Brahmanas  or 
precepts,  under  which  term  are  included  also  explana- 
tory maxims  and  theological  arguments.  The  Rig- 
veda*  means  literally  the  Veda  of  verses,  from  rich,  to 
praise  ;  and  consists  of  somewhat  more  than  a  thousand 
hymns  of  praise,  called  Suktas,  to  the  Deity,  of  various 
length  from  one  to  fifty  verses.  The  religious  litera- 
ture of  the  Hindus  consists  of  such  works,  beside  the 
Vedas  themselves,  as  the  Upanishads,  which  are 
theological  tracts  containing  the  argumentative  portion 
called  Vedanta,  of  the  Indian  Scriptures,  and  also  some 
detached  essays  of  a  kindred  sort,  but  of  what  origin 
is  not  known.     On  the  Upanishads  the  whole  of  their 

*  In  the  study  of  the  Vedas,  which  is  enjoined  upon  all  priests,  the 
student  is  always  required  to  note  distinctly  the  author,  subject, 
metre,  and  purpose  of  each  prayer,  more  than  to  understand  the  praj-er 
itself;  and  thus  most  of  what  is  taught  in  the  Vedas  has  now  become' 
obsolete.  So  strong  is  the  tendencj^  everywliere  in  human  nature  to 
put  the  gloss  of  mere  formal  respect  on  every  thing  ancient,  and  to 
satisfy  its  religious  instincts,  by  carefullj^  preserving  religious  truths 
and  principles,  as  if  a  mere  cabinet  of  elegant  curiosities.  The  Veda  is 
accordingly  the  Hindu's  book  of  education  for  his  child,  whom  he  re- 
quires to  learn  it  at  an  early  age :  as  a  precious  mass  of  holy  words, 
without  any  thought  or  care  about  its  holy  sense.  And,  as  the  Ta- 
tars, according  to  Hue,  construct  multitudes  of  little  water-mills  covered 
with  scraps  of  prayers,  and  set  them  along  the  courses  of  their  streams, 
that,  by  their  revolution  day  and  night  they  may  keep  up  a  constant 
round  of  prayer  for  them,  whether  awake  or  asleep ;  so  the  super- 
stitious Indians  abound  in  vain  i-epetitions  of  chance-portions  of  the 
Vedas,  repeating  them  forwards  and  backwards,  backwards  and  for- 
wards, in  idle  emptiness  of  thought,  in  order  to  benefit  their  souls,  if 
possible,  in  some  way  by  such  foolish  mummery. 


36  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

theology  is  professedly  founded.  Their  remaining 
literature  which  is  abundant,  spreads  over  the  varied 
fields  of  grammar,  accentuation,  prosody,  interpretation, 
lexicography,  language,  logic,  philosophy,  ethics,  as- 
tronomy, &c. 

The  dialect  of  the  Vedas,  especially  of  the  first 
three,  is  very  ancient  and  very  difficult ;  but,  as  the 
earlier  form  of  the  polished  Sanskrit,  it  possesses  great 
interest,  as  it  does  also  even  still  more  from  the  fact 
of  the  resemblance  of  the  Graeco-Latin  stock  of  words 
very  largely  to  its  primeval  forms,  rather  than  to  those 
of  the  proper  Sanskrit  itself;  much  of  which  seems  to 
have  been  developed,  as  a  distinct  home-growth  by 
itself,  after  the  departure  of  the  Pelasgian  emigration 
from  its  borders. 

The  Sanskrit  is  then  the  learned  language  of  the 
Hindus  :  sustaining  the  same  relation  to  their  present 
dialects,  that  the  Latin  sustains  to  the  modern  Romanic 
tongues.  While  it  is  written  in  various  Indian  char- 
acters, it  has  an  alphabet  peculiarly  its  own,  called  the 
Deva-nagari,  literally  "that  of  the  divine  or  royal 
city."  The  remotest  date  to  which  its  existence  can 
be  traced,  is  the  thu'd  century  before  Christ ;  but  at 
this  period,  its  forms  had  only  the  rudimentary 
features  of  the  shape,  which  they  have  since  come  to 
possess  in  all  Sanskrit  writings,  and  which,  for  conve- 
nience sake,  are  called  modern  in  distinction  from  the 
original  imperfect  alphabet  of  symbols  which  preceded 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  37 

it.  The  "  modern"  Devanagari  is  the  most  complete 
and  philosophical  in  its  construction,  of  all  known 
alphabets.  The  "  ancient  "  occurs  only  in  antique  in- 
scriptions, found  on  pillars  and  high  rock-walls  through- 
out India ;  and  the  dialect  in  which  these  characters 
appear,  is  not  the  Sanskrit  or  "  classical "  language  of 
the  literary  class  ;  but  the  Prakrit,  a  "  natural "  or  "  un- 
cultivated" idiom  of  it,  adopted  in  accommodation  to 
the  people,  for  whose  eyes  they  were  thus  carved  in  im- 
perishable stone :  since  they  prove  to  be  but  royal 
commands  to  them,  to  obey  the  priests  and  to  practise 
various  social  virtues.  There  are  good  historical  data 
for  referring  them  to  the  time  immediately  succeeding 
Alexander's  invasion  of  the  East.  The  true  or  "  mod- 
ern "  Devanagari  was,  like  the  literature  enclosed  as 
in  a  casket  in  it,  kept  out  of  sight  from  the  people  by 
the  proud  Brahmins  of  ancient  times  as  now,  who  de- 
lighted in  fencing  off  others  from  their  selfish  seclusion 
of  false  dignity,  by  withholding  from  them  as  many 
privileges  as  possible.  The  word  Sanskrit  or  "  clas- 
sical "  had  an  icy  coldness  of  meaning  in  it,  even  then, 
to  those  shut  out  from  its  favored  pale :  as,  occasionally 
in  modern  times,  some  standing  under  the  very  canopy 
of  divine  revelation  affect  to  make  it,  and  together 
with  it  all  the  beauty  of  mental  and  moral  culture  de- 
noted by  it,  appear  to  imply  to  the  uninitiated.  In- 
deed, as  Milton's  Eve,  when  bending  over  the  river's 
bank  in  Eden  saw  as  in  a  mirror  her  own  image  and 

4 


38  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

was  astonished ;  so,  we  may  gaze  from  tlie  verge  of  the 
present  npon  the  wondrous  stream  of  the  past,  in  the 
ancient  Indian  home  of  our  race,  and  see  with  amaze- 
ment not  only  our  o^^n  outward  selves  all  imaged  there, 
but  also  the  most  inward  and  subtle  features  of  our 
hearts.  In  the  sixth  centiu-y  before  Christ,  when 
Buddhism,  well  styled  the  ancient  Protestant  religion 
of  India,  rose  into  full  view,  the  Sanskrit  was  no  longer 
a  spoken  language.  As  the  most  ancient  of  all  literary 
documents  of  the  Arian  race  upon  the  earth,  the  Rig- 
Yedas  possess  quite  a  special  interest  of  their  own. 
They  were  all  probably  written  before  the  days  of 
Solomon.  The  grammar  and  lexicography  of  the 
Vedas  are  now  being  laboriously  studied  in  Germany 
and  Russia  and  by  Prof.  Wliitney  in  this  country ;  and 
much  progress  lias  been  made  in  the  great  work  of  ac- 
curately deciphering  their  contents. 

The  relation  of  the  Ye  die  dialect  to  the  classical 
Sanskrit  is  peculiar.  "  Phonetically  they  are  almost 
exactly  the  same  :*  grammatically  they  are  nearly  the 
same ;  while  lexically  they  are  very  different."  There 
are  grammatical  treatises  in  manuscript  appended  to 
the  different  Vedas  called  Pratisakhyas.  In  these  the 
science  of  phonetics,  called  Siksha,  is  reduced  to  a  very 
perfect  system :  far  more  so  than  in  any  other  language 
since ;  and  yet  these  grammars  date  back  as  far  as  to  the 
fifth  century  before  Christ.      They  have  not  yet  been 

*  Prof.  W.  D.  Whitney,  of  Yale. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  39 

publislied,  but  pliilologists  now  are  returning  to  the 
same  classification  of  vowels  and  consonants  that  oc- 
curs in  them,  as  the  result  of  their  own  independent 
research.  The  Sanskrit  is  both  read  and  written  by 
the  learned  in  India,  up  to  the  present  day ;  but,  since 
the  days  of  Panini,  their  great  grammarian,  who  lived 
in  the  fourth  century  before  Christ,  the  Sanskrit  has 
remained  in  a  state  of  cold  and  glazed  unchangeable- 
ness ;  hke  some  of  the  fossil  elephants  found  nowa- 
days in  the  icy  realms  of  Siberia,  as  perfect  even  to  the 
short  thin  hair  of  their  hides,  as  when  they  walked  in 
pomp  upon  the  Pre-Adamic  earth.  Beside  the  Vedas 
and  Upanishads,  two  great  epic  poems  called  the 
Mahabaratah  and  Ramayana  are  very  celebrated,  as 
also  the  so-called  laws  of  Menu.  These  were  probably 
written  in  the  fourth  century  before  Christ. 

It  was  in  the  Vedic  period  of  Sanskrit  literature 
that  the  Southern  Arian  mind,  or  what  became  after- 
ward the  proper  Hindu  mind,  was  at  its  highest  point 
of  culmination :  exhibiting  the  most  and  the  strongest 
signs  of  its  original  individuality.  After  that  period  it 
seems  to  have  lost  its  first  vio;or :  althouo'h  ever  wor- 
shipping,  under  the  name  of  Brahma,  Porce  or  Propul- 
sive Will  as  the  all-presiding  Deity  of  the  Universe. 

Between  the  Vedic  dialect  and  tlie  Zend  strikiuGr 
resemblances  are  found  to  exist. 

"  The  Sanskrit  is,"  in  the  lanojuas^e  of  EichhofF 
"  the  richest  of  all  languages  in  the  world,  in  its  combi- 


40  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

nations.  Its  words  melt  and  run  continually  together, 
in  harmony  of  sound*  and  sense  ;  and  their  full  splendor 
is  but  faintly  imaged  to  the  view  even  by  the  beautiful 
and  pictorial  language  of  Greece ;  while  the  coarser  and 
sterner  Latin  represents  in  its  features  still  less  of  this 
high  characteristic  of  its  elder  sister,  the  Sanskrit. 

*  The  words  of  Lepsius  also  are  worth  quoting  here  (Standard 
Alphabet,  p.  15)  : — -'No  language  has  a  system  of  sounds  more  rich 
and  regularly  developed  than  the  Sanskrit,  or  expresses  them  so  per- 
fectly by  its  alphabet.  The  old  grammarians  of  India  did  not  indeed 
invent  the  Devnagari  characters ;  but  they  brought  them  to  that  state 
of  perfection  which  they  now  possess.  With  an  acumen  worthy  of  all 
admiration,  with  physiological  and  linguistic  views  more  accurate  than 
those  of  any  other  people,  these  grammarians  penetrated  so  deeply 
into  the  relations  of  sounds  in  their  own  lang-uage,  that  we  at  this  day 
may  gain  instruction  from  them,  for  the  better  understanding  of  the 
sounds  of  our  own  languages.  On  this  account  no  language  and  no 
alphabet  are  better  suited  to  serve,  not  indeed  as  an  absolute  rule  but 
as  a  starting-point,  for  the  construction  of  an  universal  linguistic  alpha- 
bet, than  that  of  ancient  India.  Hence  it  is  that  the  late  progress  in 
the  solution  of  the  alphabet  problem  has  been  associated  in  Europe,  as 
formerly  in  India,  with  Sanskrit  studies."  "The  alphabet  problem" 
of  which  he  speaks,  is  that  of  establishing  an  uniform  orthography  for 
writing  foreign  languages  in  European  characters,  or  a  standard  alpha- 
bet for  all  unwritten  languages  and  foreign  graphic  systems. 

The  Devanagari  is  adapted  to  the  expression  of  almost  every  known 
gradation  of  sound  ;  and  every  letter  has  a  fixed  and  invariable  pronun- 
ciation. There  are  fourteen  vowels  and  thirty-three  simple  consonants : 
to  which  may  be  added  the  nasal  symbol  called  Anuswara  and  tlic 
symbol  for  a  final  aspirate  called  Visarga.  The  vowels  are  a,  a,  i,  i,  u. 
u,  ri,  ri,  Iri,  Iri,  e,  ai,  o,  au.  The  consonants  are  :  the  gutturals  k,  kh. 
g,  gh,  n :  the  palatals  ch,  chh,  j,  jh,  n :  the  cerebrals  t,  th,  d,  dh,  n : 
the  dentals  t,  th,  d,  dh,  n :  the  labials  p.  ph,  b,  bh.  m  :  the  semi-vowels 
y,  r,  1,  V :  the  sibilants  s,  sh,  s  ;  and  the  aspirate  h.  The  compound  or 
conjunct  consonants  may  be  multiplied,  to  the  extent  of  four  or  five 
hundred. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  41 

It  must  however  be  remembered,  in  connection 
with  this  statement,  that  in  respect  to  the  artistic  elabo- 
ration of  language,  in  variety  and  exactness  of  form,  as 
well  as  m  outward  phonetic  beauty  and  effect,  the 
Greek  far  surpassed  not  only  the  Sanskrit,  !)ut  also  every 
other  language  ancient  or  modem.  Of  the  Sanskrit 
also  it  must  be  said,  that  in  many  particulars  it  has 
experienced,  in  the  type  in  which  it  has  reached  our 
eyes,  alterations  of  its  original  elements  and  character- 
istics :  so  much  so,  that  not  unfrequently  some  of  the 
other  families  of  languages  present  to  us  the  primal 
theme  of  a  word,  in  a  much  piu-er  form  than  even  the 
Sanskrit  itself,  as  is  often  especially  true  of  the  Lithua- 
nian. No  one  of  the  sister  languages  of  the  Indo-Eu- 
ropean family  has  as  clear  and  transparent  a  style  of 
flexional  orsjanism  as  the  Sanskrit. 

In  remote  times  other  languages  as  dialects  sprang 
up  from  the  Sanskrit,  which  ere  long  supplanted  it  on 
its  own  soil :  leaving  it  to  maintain  its  existence  at  last, 
only  as  the  language  of  the  sacred  books  of  India  and  of 
its  learned  men.  These  dialects  are  denominated  the  Pali 
and  the  Prakrit,  and  are  now  found  as  dead  languages, 
by  the  side  of  their  Sanskrit  mother  in  northern  Hin- 
dustan. Dialects  are  the  result  of  mixtures  of  the 
stable  element  of  the  original  tongue  in  which  they 
occur,  with  a  new  variable  element  introduced  from 
without,  sometimes  by  conquest,  and  sometimes  by 
commerce  or  other  modes  of  social  contact  and  inilu- 


42  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

ence.  The  Pali  grew  up,  as  the  offspring  of  the  San- 
skrit, ill  the  province  of  Bahar,  and  is  to  this  day  the 
sacred  language  of  all  the  nations  that  cherish  Buddhism 
in  Ceylon  and  farther  India;  since,  among  those  that 
speak  this  dialect,  that  singular  democratic  form  of 
heathenism  originated.  The  Prakrit  languages  (for 
they  are  many :  the  idea  is  plm'al)  include  numerous 
low  depraved  dialects,  which  grew  up  as  parasites  on 
the  decaying  trunk  of  the  original  Sanskrit  tree.  The 
word  Sanskrit  is  derived  from  the  preposition  sam, 
with  (Gr.  ovv,  Latin  cum)  and  krita,  made;  and  like 
the  Lat.  confectus  .means  "  carefully  constructed," 
"  complete,"  "  classical :  "  that  of  Prakrit  is  "  natural," 
"uncultivated;"  while  Pali  means  "ancient."  The 
Pali  and  Prakrit  dialects  represent  the  middle  age  of 
the  Sanskrit.  The  Pali  was  at  the  height  of  its  excel- 
lence full  500  years  before  Christ ;  while  the  Prakrit 
was  not  fully  developed  until  one  or  tAvo  centuries  later. 
The  present  languages  of  Hindustan,  some  twenty  or 
thirty  in  all,  represent  the  Sanskrit  in  its  most  degen- 
erate state:  having  swerved  very  greatly  from  their 
original  model.  Most  of  the  languages  now  spoken  in 
Upper  India  are  immediately  derived  from  the  Prakrit. 
Distinctions  of  caste  have  long  prevailed  in  India 
and  are  founded,  there  as  everywhere,  in  the  distinction 
of  conquering  and  conquered  races  :  this  being  hitherto 
the  history  of  the  treatment  that  inferior  races  have  al- 
ways received  from  superior  when  in  mutual  contact. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEATNT    LANGUAGES.  43 

Hindii  nationality  is  therefore  now,  partly  of  Arian 
origin  and  partly  of  either  Semitic  or  Turanian,  prob- 
-ably  the  latter:  one  language  in  its  various  dialects 
embracing  them  all,  but  not  one  wide  fraternal  spirit. 

Beside  the  Sanskrit,  there  is  also  another  member 
of  the  Indian  family,  a  vagrant  language,  whose  geo- 
graphical home  like  that  of  those  who  speak  it  is 
everywhere.  Only  two  people,  while  preserving  their 
national  distinctness  in  all  times  and  places,  have  spread 
themselves  as  such  over  all  the  earth  :  one  belono^ina: 
to  the  Semitic  family,  the  Jews ;  and  the  other  to  the 
Indo-European,  the  Gypsies.  Their  law  of  extension 
from  age  to  age  has  not  been  orbital  but  cometary. 
They  claim  the  wide  world  as  their  domain.  The  Jew 
preserves  his  language  as  a  sacred  relic,  and  prizes  it 
for  the  fathers*  sake.  It  contains  in  it  a  Divine  de- 
posit, the  law  and  the  testimony ;  and  is  beautiful  for  its 
antiquity  and  the  honor  that  it  has  received  from 
above ;  but  it  is  a  living  language  no  more  and  has 
lost  all  function  in  the  present.  But  how  different  is 
it  with  the  Gypsy !  His  language  is  everywhere  the 
same  intact  cherished  old  mother-tongue  :  as  distinct 
and  separate  from  the  other  languages  among  wliicli  it 
is  found,  as  are  the  people  from  those  over  whose  ter- 
ritories they  wander.  Their  language  and  their  roving 
habits  of  life  are  all  that  constitute  their  national  iden  - 
tity.     Their  names  are  quite  various  :  as  Gypsy*  from 

*  The  Finns,  like  the  English,  give  them  a  name  of  their  own 
devising,  and  call  them  Mustalainen  or  dark  people. 


44 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 


their  supposed  home  in  Egypt :  Zigeiiner,  their  name 
in  Germany,  a  word  of  doubtful  meaning :  Sinte,  the 
name  by  which  they  call  themselves,  perhaps  from 
Saindhawa,  "  inhabitants  of  Sindhu  or  the  Indus ; " 
and  also  Roem  meaning  man  and  Kala  "  of  dark  skin" 
from  Sanskrit  Kala  "  dark."  They  first  appeared  in 
Europe  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  centm*y. 

Their  language,*  in  its  great  and  manifold  resem- 
blances to  the  Sanskrit,  nullifies  absolutely  before  the 
court  of  classical  and  historical  criticism  the  so  common 
conception  of  their  Egyptian  origin ;  and  shows  that 


*  COEEESPONDENCES    OF   THE    GYPSY   LAIfGTJAGE. 


Varions 

Sanskrit. 

Greek. 

Latin. 

Gypsy. 

Lithuan. 

Languages. 

German. 

English: 

1.  aksha  (s) 

OKOS 

oculus 

ak 

akis 

(Russian) 
olco 

auge 

eye 

the  eye 

(perhaps) 

yakcha 
yak 

(OM 

Slavonic.) 

2.   agni  (s) 
fire 

aiyXri 

ignis 

yak 
fire 

ngnis 

ogny 

angara, 

angar 

a  coal 

a  coal 

(Illyrian) 

3.  nava  (s) 

re'os 

novus 

nevo 

naujas 

nov 

neu 

new 

new 

for 

i.  vid, 

ftSeiv 

videre 

bedar 

(Zend) 

wissen 

wit 

to  see : 

for 

to  teach 

vid 

to  know 

wise 

vind  to 

Yeibfiv 

weisen 

viz 

discover. 

causative 

to  show 

-vide 

vedaya 

iffflfxi 

visere 

vedeml 

-vise 

(causative) 

I  teach 

to  teach 

5.  bhratar 

(ppaT-np 

frater 

bnil 

brolis 

(L.ttisl) 
bralis 

bruder 

brother 

brother 

THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  45 

they  came  from  Northern  India.  This  liowcver  is  not 
the  first  or  greatest  ethnological  fallacy,  that  has  origi- 
nated in  a  popnlar  empirical  style  of  etymological 
guessing.  The  ancients  especially  were  very  fond  of 
weaving  legendary  history,  out  of  such  dubious  mate- 
rials. 

2.  The  Iranian  family. 

The  name  Iran  is  derived  from  Arya ;  and  includes 
those  people,  whose  languages  were  originally  allied 
closely  with  those  of  the  Indian  family,  but  yet  by  cer- 
tain definite  laws  of  sound  separated  from  them,  such 
as  these  :  (1 .)  The  change  of  a  dental  into  s  before  t, 
as  in  Zend  basta  from  Sanskrit  baddha,  bound.  (2.) 
The  Sanskrit  sv  changed  into  a  guttural,  as  in  Sansk, 
svasr,  sister  :  New  Persian  chaher.  (3.)  A  radical 
s  changed  into  h,  as  in  Sansk.  saptan,  Zend  hapta  and 
Sansk.  sam,  with :  Old  Persian  ham.  (4.)  The  fre- 
quent substitution  of  the  dental  sibilant  z  for  the  gut- 
tural aspirate  h,  as  in  Sansk.  aham,  I,  and  mih,*  to  uri- 
nate :  Zend  azem  and  miz.  The  two  chief  languages  of 
this  class  are  the  Zend  and  the  Old  Persian.  The  Zend 
is  the  language  of  the  most  ancient  cuneiform  inscrip- 
tions, made  in  the  6th  century  before  Christ,  which  are 
Persian  inscriptions  carved  in  the  Assyrian  character ; 
and  also  of  the  holy  books  of  the  Parsees,  the  Zend 
Avesta.  The  Avesta  is  a  collection  of  sacred  books, 
containing  their  early  traditions  and  the  religious  and 

*  Gr.  ofil^cv:   Lat.  mingere  and  meiere. 


46  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

ethical  system  of  Zarutluistra,  commonly  called  Zo- 
roaster, their  great  legislator  ;  as  well  as  a  liturgy  which 
is  used  to  this  day  by  some  of  the  modern  Persians  in 
the  oasis  of  Yezd,  who  still  worship  the  element  of  fire. 
It  seems  to  have  been  preserved  in  the  world  for  many 
centuries,  like  the  Iliad  which  may  almost  be  called  the 
Bible  of  the  early  Greeks,  by  mere  oral  transmission. 
It  can  be  traced  back  in  written  records,  and  no  farther 
in  such  a  form,  than,  to  the  dynasty  of  the  Sassanides 
(a.  d.  2:26.)  The  Zend  was  the  original  vernacular 
of  the  Medes  and  Bactrians.  So  closely  does  it  resem- 
ble the  Sanskrit,  that  in  very  many  words,  by  merely 
changing  the  Zend  letters  into  their  Sanskrit  equiva- 
lents, you  obtain  at  once  precisely  the  same  identical 
word.  Very  striking  also  in  particular  is  the  corre- 
spondence between  Persia  and  India,  in  the  elements 
of  their  religion  and  mythology.  It  is  not  indeed  too 
much  to  say,  that  all  the  Indo-European  nations  have 
a  common  fundamental  basis  for  their  mythology,  in 
their  common  sense  of  natural  phenomena  :  with  such 
variations  in  the  myths,  contrived  by  their  sensuous 
imaginations  for  the  ideal  embodiment  of  their  concep- 
tions among  different  nations,  as  the  greater  or  less 
luxuriance  of  the  poetic  faculty  in  different  climates 
sufficed  to  suggest.  Still  there  were  gods  worshipped 
under  the  same  names  in  Sanskrit  and  Zend,  of  which 
the  other  Indo-European  nations  seem  to  have  had  no 
idea.     In  many  points  tlie  Zend  compares  with  the 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  47 

Vedic  or  primitive  natural  Sanskrit,  better  than  with 
the  subsequent  cultivated  or  classical  Sanskrit.  It  is 
a  fact  also  worthy  of  remembrance  in  this  connection, 
that  the  Zend  is  found  to  be  throughout  wonderfully 
congruous  and  correlated  with  the  German  languages. 

The  Old  Persian  is  the  language  of  many,  now 
perfectly  deciphered,  aiTow-headed  inscriptions  of  the 
Achsemenidian  kings.  The  intermediate  forms  of  the 
Persian  were  the  Pehlevi,  the  language  of  the  Sassanians 
(a.  D.  226-G51) ;  and  the  Pazend,  the  mother  of  the  neAV 
Persian,  with  which  also  the  Pushtu  spoken  in  Affghan- 
istan  is  connected.  The  Pehlevi,  which  was  the  lan- 
guage of  western  Persia,  had  in  it  a  strong  admixtm-e  of 
Aramaic  words ;  while  the  Pazend,  that  of  eastern  Persia, 
was  but  the  Old  Persian  greatly  commingled  with  Ara- 
bic. The  New  Persian  also  has  been  much  altered  in 
flowing  down  from  its  original  sources  by  the  influence 
of  the  Arabic,  through  the  long  reign  of  Mohammedism 
over  that  region  of  the  world.  The  greatest  literary 
work  in  the  New  Persian  is  an  immense  epic  poem, 
cafled  the  Shah  Nameh  or  Book  of  Kings,  written  by 
Ferdousi,  about  the  middle  of  the  10th  century.  It 
is  a  traditionary  history  so  mingled  with  fiction  and 
metamorphosed  by  it,  as  to  be  rather  an  Oriental 
Romance  than  a  splendid  structure  of  real  and  con- 
nected facts.  This  was  the  classic  age  of  the  New 
Persian. 

But   there  are   other  languages  of  this    stock,  of 


48  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

much  smaller  philological  value  than  those  already 
mentioned :  the  Ossetian  and  Armenian.  In  the  midst 
of  the  Caucasus,  alone  by  itself  though  surrounded  by 
men  of  other  tongues,  like  the  solitary  nest  of  a  wild 
bird  in  the  mountains,  is  the  home  of  the  Ossetian* 
tongue.  The  people  still  call  themselves  by  the  old 
family  name.  Iron.  They  are  but  rude  higlilanders, 
without  a  literature  or  a  history.  The  Armenian  lan- 
guage, on  the  contrary,  has  a  rich  historical  literature, 
but  of  no  older  date  than  the  4th  century  of  our  era. 
The  alphabet  is  peculiar,  being  immediately  modelled 
after  the  Greek.  Althouo-h  the  lansfuaore  is  of  an 
original  Iranian  constitution,  its  form  and  features 
have  been  much  altered  by  contact  with  surrounding 
languages,  especially  the  Tm-kish.  The  Ancient  Ar- 
menian was  a  living  language  down  to  the  12th  cen- 
tury ;  since  wdiich  time  the  present  dialect  has  grow'U 
up  into  full  individual  stature.  The  skirts  of  the 
Armenian  language,  and  of  the  busy  trafficking  people 
that  speak  it,  are  found  now  resting,  in  Em'ope,  in 
Southern  Russia  around  the  Sea  of  Azof,  and  in  Tur- 
key, Galicia  and  Hungary. 

II.  The  Grseco-Italic  or  Pelasgic  family-pair. 

But  a  little  while  ago  Latin  etymology  was  univer- 

*  Correspondences  of  the  Ossetian  Language : 

Sanckrit  Ossetian.  Gothic  Latin, 

pilar,  father  fid  fadar  pater 

panchan,  five  fonz  fimf  quinqne 

pasu(s),  a  flock  fos  faihu  pecu 

kas,  who  kha  hvas  quis 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  49 

sally  constructed:  as  it  still  is  by  many  who  are 
entirely  ignorant  of  its  true  foundations,  although 
fancying  themselves  to  be  on  the  pathway  of  high 
classical  scholarship :  on  altogether  a  Greek  basis. 
The  Latin  such  writers  have  derived  immediately  from 
the  Greek  :  accounting  for  the  differences  of  form  and 
structure,  by  all  sorts  of  empirical  explanations  ;  whose 
chief  merit  has  consisted  in  their  being  an  ingenious 
dodge  of  diificidties,  that  could  not  be  solved.  Such 
works  as  Valpy's  Etymol.  Latin  Dictionary,  Mair's 
Tyro,  Doderlein's  various  works,  and  Schwenck's  Ety- 
mologisches  Worterbuch,  illustrate  this  era  and  style 
of  Latin  etymology.  These  works  still  have  a  value, 
and  that  often  considerable,  in  exhibiting  correspond- 
ences in  the  two  languages  and  suggesting  hints  for 
farther  research.  But  they  are  no  guide-books,  as  they 
profess  to  be,  in  either  philological  or  historical  research. 
The  fundamental  conception  which  they  undertake  to 
unfold  is  false  and  ridiculous. 

In  very  remote  ages  there  existed  evidently  a 
Graeco-Italic  race,  to  which  the  progenitors  of  both  the 
Latin  and  Greek  nations,  as  they  came  afterwards  to 
be  and  to  be  called,  belonged  in  common ;  and  from 
which  they  afterwards  branched  off  into  a  separate  man- 
ifestation. The  time,  when  they  thus  parted  into  two 
distinct  individualities,  was  many  centuries  before  either 
Romulus  lived  or  Homer  sang. 

1st.  The  Greek  race,  remaining  nearer  geographically 


50  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

and  in  closer  contact,  commercially  and  socially,  with 
that  Oriental  world,  amid  whose  abounding  and  in- 
spiring luxuriance  God  Himself  prepared  the  first 
home  of  the  human  family,  came  in  every  respect  to 
a  higher  and  nobler  style  of  growth  and  greatness, 
than  the  Latin.  The  people  and  their  language  spread 
out  themselves,  in  different  periods  and  localities,  into 
a  vigorous  fourfold  demonstration :  as  expressed  in  the 
^olic,  Doric,  Ionic  and  Attic  dialects;  which  mark 
indeed  but  so  many  stages  or  epochs  of  the  same 
language.  The  Doric  is  but  a  variety  of  the  zEolic ; 
and  these  two  dialects  may,  without  impropriety,  be 
said  to  mark  the  earlier  and  later  aspects  of  the  Pelas- 
gic  period.  The  Ionic,  as  a  subsequent  development 
of  the  same  language,  took  on  its  separate  form,  under 
the  influence  of  national  progress,  as  a  distinct  home- 
product  ;  and,  "  so  far,"  as  K.  O.  MiiUer  well  observes, 
"as  it  differs  in  any  word,  in  respect  to  either  its 
vowels  or  its  consonants,  from  the  iEolic ;  it  differs 
also  from  the  original  type  of  the  word." 

The  Italic  race  parted  from  the  common  Grasco- 
Italic  stock,  by  a  more  western  migration  ;  where,  in 
another  climate  and  under  other  influences,  they  ma- 
tured into  a  well-defined  development  of  their  own. 
They  ere  long  separated  into  an  eastern  and  western 
branch;  and  the  eastern  subsequently  divided  itself 
into  the  Umbrian  and  Oscan.     The  causes,  times  and 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  51 

modes  of  these  difFcrcnt  niigrations  and  separations  lie 
out  of  tlie  field  of  exact  historic  vision. 

As  agriculture  is  the  basis  of  all  stable  social  or- 
ganization, we  are  compelled  to  believe  that  the  origi- 
nal Grseco-Italic  race  were  given  to  the  culture  of 
grain, oil  and  wine  ;  instead  of  leading  that  wandering 
shepherd-life,  to  which  Orientals  have  ever  been  so 
much  addicted,  and  which  was  undoubtedly  therefore  a 
leading  feature  at  the  first  of  Indo-European  life  in 
the  East.  The  very  names  given  to  the  first  inhabit- 
ants of  Italy  declare  this  historic  fact;  as  (Enotria 
(from  olvog  wine)  from  Avhich  the  title  (Enotrians  ;  and 
so  Opsci  and  Osci,  laborers  (ops)  and  Siculi  and  Sicani 
(secare  to  cut),  reapers. 

The  Greek  and  Latin  languages  have  then  a  com- 
mon origin,  and  possess  a  common  substantive  being. 
The  mould  and  model  of  the  Latin  are  the  more  antique 
in  their  forms  of  the  two.  In  the  MoYic  dialect,  in 
which  we  have  the  remains,  in  general,  of  the  Greek  as 
it  was  in  its  primeval  state,  it  resembles  the  Latin  much 
more  than  in  its  later  dialects.  In  this  dialect,  the 
Graeco-Italic  or  PelasQ-ic  element  that  forms  the  common 
stock  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages  is  found  most 
abundantl}'^,  and  Avith  the  fewest  adulterations  and  ad- 
ditions. The  words  most  distinctly  common  to  the 
Greek  and  Latin,  are  those  that  thereby  show  them- 
selves to  characterize  that  period,  in  which  they  had  a 
blended  life  in  one  common  stock.     These  words  relate 


52 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 


to  the  domestic  animals,  the  soil,  the  phenomena  of  na- 
ture, objects  of  worship,  articles  of  subsistence  and  im- 
plements of  industry ;  or,  in  other  words,  to  the  ele- 
ments and  experiences  *  of  every-day  life.     In  the  Attic 

*  Specimens  of  the  correspondence  alluded  to  in  the  Greek  and 
Latin  as  well  as  in  Sanskrit. 


Sanskrit. 

Latin. 

Greek. 

Tlieir  sense  in 
English. 

gaus 

bos 

fiovs 

ox 

avis 

ovis 

oi'y 

sheep 

hansas 

anser 

X^" 

goose 

asvas 

equus 

'IttttoS 

JEol. 

'tKKOS 

horse 

pasu 

pecu 

iraiv 

flock 

sthuras 

taurus 

ravpos 

bull 

akshas 

axis 

a^aip 

axis 

a  wheel 

afx-a^a 

axle 

saras 

sal 

a,\s 

salt 

varahas 

porcus 
verres 

TTOpKOS 

pig 

sukaras 

sus 

(TVS  and  vs 

sow- 

s'van 

canis 

KVttlV 

dog 

mush 

mus 

fj-vs 

mouse 

4tis 

anas 

VTJdcra,  for 
avr)(r<Ta. 

duck 

raj at a 

argentum 

apyvpisv 

silver 

arbhas 

orbus 

op(pav6s 

orphan 

damas 

domus 

hoixos 

house 

devas 

deus 

eds 

God 

ajra,  from  aj 

ager 

aypos 

field 

arv,  to  divide  or 

arare 

apovv 

to  plough 

break  up 

aratrum 

apoTpov 

a  plough 

garhan 

hortus 

Xopros 

garden 

— 

vinum 

oivos 

wine 

li,  to  melt 

oliva 

4\aia 

olive 

oleum 

ihaiov 

oil 

— 

lancea 

\6yxT} 

lance 

naus  (gen.  navas) 

navis 

yavs 

ship 

remus 

epeT/jLos 

oar 

THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES. 


53 


dialect,  or  classic  Greek,  it  departs  farthest  from  the 
original  elements  of  its  common  parentage  and  charac- 
ter. It  is  in  the  Greek  that  we  find  most  of  the  al- 
tered and  secondary  sounds  and  forms ;  while  in  the 
Latin  they  maintain  more  generally  their  primitive  as- 
pect. At  the  remotest  period,  of  which  we  have  any 
historical  records  concerning  the  Greek,  it  had  already 
undergone  great  changes  from  its  primitive  state.  In 
that  dark  unwTitten  era,  as  in  "  the  womb  of  the  morn- 
ing," the  Greek  *  and  Latin  dwelt  together  in  theij' 


Sanskrit. 

Latin. 

Greek. 

English. 

pu,  to  purify 

poena 

iro'tvr] 

punishment 

(tam,  to  divide 
prob.  root.) 
tam-alas,  a  knife. 

templum 

Tfnevos 
from 

TtflVW 

temple 

— 

puis 

iro\Tos 

pulse 

pish,  to  bruise 

pinso 

iTTtVirw 

to  bruise  or  grind 

mal,  to  break  in 

mola 

fxvKr] 

miU 

pieces 

kokilas 

cuculus 

KOKKV^ 

cuckoo 

karavas 

corvus 

KOpblVr\ 

crow 

ahis 

anguis 

€XIS 

snake 

^arabhas 

carabus 

Kapa^os 

crab 

makshikas 

musca 

fivla 

gnat 

— 

grus 

yipavos 

crane 

— 

vespa 

ffcpri^ 

•wasp 

— 

fera 

e-np 

a  wild  animal 

karkatas 

cancer 

KapKlVOS 

crab 

— 

aranea 

apdxyri 

spider 

*  The  name  Greece  was  given  by  the  Romans :  the  vernacular  name 
for  the  country  being  TTellas  and  for  the  people  Hellenes.  So  the  Ger- 
mans, as  we  call  them,  are  named  by  the  French  Les  Allemands  and 
by  themselves  Deutsch.  The  old  Etrusci  or  Tusci,  as  they  were  called 
by  the  Romans,  denominated  themselves  Rasena  and  the  Wallachians 
call  themselves  Romani :  while  the  Gypsies'  name  for  themselves  is 
5 


54  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

embryo  state,  yet  to  be  developed  into  a  separate  life 
and  activity.  This  is  its  Graeco-Latin,  Pelasgic,  or 
Archaic  period.  So  much  of  that  great  common  prim- 
itive Giseco-Italic  race,  as,  in  overflowing  the  plains 
of  Greece  rested  permanently  upon  them  as  its  abode, 
soon  came,  under  local  influences,  to  assume  a  corre- 
sponding definite  character :  determined  by  their  cli- 
mate, sky,  landscape  and  soil  and  the  habits  of  life  that 
these  necessitated  and  suggested. 

The  next  period  of  Grecian  development  was  the 
Hellenic  or  Classic  :  covering  all  the  more  enlarged  and 
cultivated  conditions  of  Grecian  character  and  society. 
As  the  tenns,  Pelasgic  and  Hellenic,  are  commonly 
used  to  denote  different  elementary  races ;  it  must  be 
ever  borne  in  mind,  that,  contrarily,  they  are  used  here, 
to  denote  only  different  eras  of  historic  development  in 
the  same  identical  race.  The  term  Pelasgic  accordingly 
determines  the  epoch  of  the  first  Graeco-Italic  emigra- 
tions into  Greece,  and,  so,  that  of  its  first  permanent 
settlement  and  of  the  establishment  of- its  primitive  in- 
stitutions. The  term  Hellenic  separates  from  this  first 
epoch  that  subsequent  era  marked,  on  the  one  hand, 
by  the  later  emigrations  of  the  same  Graeco-Italic  race 
from  their  trans-^Egean  homes  in  Western  Asia,  when 
in  a  more  cultivated  condition ;  and  also  especially  by  a 

Sinte.  So  in  southern  Africa,  as  Livingstone  informs  us,  "'  most  of  the 
tribes  are  known  by  names  applied  to  them  by  strangers  only,  as  the 
Caffres,  Hottentots  and  Bushmen." 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  55 

fuller  and  higher  home-development,  on  the  other  hand, 
within  the  bounds  of  Hellas  itself.  By  these  agencies 
combined,  and  by  the  latter  more  than  the  former,  the 
original  institutions,  habits,  ideas  and  language  of  prim- 
itive Greece  were  greatly  modified  and  improved. 

In  this  second  and  advanced  period  of  the  Greeks, 
they  came  to  possess  a  much  higher  cast  of  character 
and  stjle  of  speech,  than  ever  before.  The  four  dia- 
lects, the  tEoHc,  Doric,  Ionic  and  Attic,  like  the  four 
moons  revolving  in  the  sky  of  Jupiter,  appeared  also,  at 
this  time,  in  full  view  together  above  the  horizon  of 
Greek  literature.  The  iEolic  *  and  Doric  dialects, 
which  are  essentially  identical,  had  their  distinct  sphere 
of  manifestation  in  the  Pelasgic  period  ;  while  the  Ionic 
and  Attic,  which  are  also  identical  in  nature,  and  but 
different  stages  and  phases  of  the  saipe  improved  state 
of  the  original  Greek  language,  found  their  proper  native 
element  in  the  Hellenic  period.  In  the  ^olic  and 
Doric  dialects,  accordingly,  the  Greek  appears  in  a  more 
plain  and  homely  garb  ;  while  in  the  Ionic  and  Attic  it 
comes  forth  in  full  costume,  wearing  a  robe  wrought  by 
many  hands  into  its  most  artistic  and  perfect  shape. 
By  its  own  finished  excellence  the  Attic  came  in  the 
end  to  be  admired,  throughout  all  Greece,  as  "  the 
perfection  of  beauty,"  and  to  become  dominant  in  the 

*  The  iEolic  and  Doric  were  far  purer  in  their  forms,  in  the  Pe- 
lasgic period,  when  no  Grecian  hterature  existed,  than  found  now  to 
be,  in  the  remains  left  of  them  in  the  Greek  writers  ;  all  of  whom  lived 
in  the  Hellenic  period. 


56  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

whole  domain  of  speech,  whether  uttered  or  written. 
By  this  dialect,  as  a  standard,  the  deviations  of  the  other 
dialects,  as  such,  were  measured.  While  the  lonians 
did  not  dislike  a  concurrence  of  vowels,  they  rejected 
the  harsh  consonantal  combinations  abounding  in  the 
early  types  of  the  language  ;  and  the  Athenians  carried 
the  improvement  of  original  forms  still  farther,  by  con- 
tracting all  proximate  vowels  which  would  produce  an 
hiatus  into  one. 

Could  the  early  history  of  Asia  Minor,  in  its  west- 
eramost  borders,  be  fully  written,  especially  that  of  Phry- 
gia,  Caria  and  Lydia ;  we  should  doubtless  find  there, 
in  great  abundance,  the  first  swelling  buds  of  Grecian 
growth  and  greatness.  Cyrus  found  at  Sardis  (b.  c.  550) 
Croesus  dwelling  in  great  magnificence  and  in  all  the 
luxury  of  a  court,  whose  power  had  already  culmi- 
nated after  ages  of  slow  national  groA\i;h,  and  was  in- 
deed beginning  to  yield  to  that  inevitable  law  of  decay, 
which  all  things  human,  when  having  reached  the  acme 
of  their  elevation,  have  hitherto  obeyed  :  the  law  of  in- 
ward dissolution :  thereby  preparing  the  elements  of  its 
own  strength  to  be  incoi-porated  anew  into  the  frame 
of  a  more  vigorous  and  usefid  successor.  In  the  Graeco- 
Italic  period  of  European  history,  the  character  and  con- 
dition of  those,  who,  as  the  primitive  inhabitants  of 
Europe,  planted  the  germs  of  all  its  subsequent  enlarge- 
ment, are  revealed  to  us.  In  them  and  in  the  armies 
of  Teutonic  emigrants  that  followed  them,  of  the  same 


THE  INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  57 

blood  and  of  the  same  primeval  language,  we  behold 
our  own  early  ancestors  when  first  entering  on  the 
great  world-stage  of  life.  For,  thanks  to  philology, 
we  can  not  only  trace  our  ancestors  to  England,  Ger- 
many, France  and  Rome,  but,  beyond  the  boundaries 
of  man's  recorded  memory  where  the  torch  of  history 
fails  to  cast  its  light,  throughout  the  long  wastes  of 
space  and  time  that  stretch  tlu'ough  Asia,  to  their  first 
homes  in  Media  and  India.  Their  social  life  and  spirit, 
their  migrations,  their  victories  and  defeats  are  all 
drawn  in  living  lines  and  painted  in  imperishable  colors, 
on  the  tablets  of  their  different  languages.  These  even 
Time's  effacing  fingers  have  spared  to  modem  eyes. 
Nowhere  are  "  stubborn  facts  "  more  stubborn,  than  in 
the  department  of  linguistic  ethnography.  The  Indo- 
European  nations  generally  are,  indeed,  but  a  series  of 
colonies  of  the  Arian  race,  which,  in  an  age  long  preced- 
ing any  known  dates,  spread  out  itseK  fi-om  its  common 
centre,  north  and  west.  The  colonies,  which  formed 
the  northern  nations  of  Europe,  probably  traversed  the 
regions  lying  northward  of  the  Caspian ;  while  the  na- 
tions of  southern  Europe  went  through  Asia  Minor 
and  across  the  Hellespont  or  the  Bosphorus.  Emigra- 
tion and  colonization  have  ever  been  marked  peculiari- 
ties, in  the  history  of  this  family  of  nations  :  emigration 
in  masses  fi-om  a  period  beyond  the  reach  of  document- 
ary history,  down  to  the  present  hoiu*.  Westward,  ever 
westward  for  thousands  of  years,  has  flowed  the  livmg 


58  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

tide.  In  the  lielleiiic  period,  whatever  the  actual  amount 
of  immigration  was,  the  tide  of  colonization  set  imme- 
diately from  Ionia  in  Asia  Minor,  and,  if  swelled  per- 
haps to  some  extent  at  the  same  time,  incidentally,  by 
kindred  elements  from  Persia,  those  elements  were  cer- 
tainly feAV  and  small ;  while,  in  tlie  earlier  Pelasgic  pe- 
riod, tlie  overflow  seems  to  have  spread  directly  from 
the  regions  of  Media.  The  only  plausible  argument, 
in  favor  of  the  supposed  influence  of  Persian  elements 
directly  or  indirectly,  on  the  form  and  features  of  the 
Hellenic  period,  is  found  in  the  fact  of  the  special  re- 
semblance of  the  classic  Greek,  in  some  things,  to  the 
Persian  both  ancient  and  modern :  a  resemblance,  which 
its  Latin  sister,  of  a  more  homogeneous  Pelasgic  consti- 
tution, does  not  at  all  possess.  The  resemblances  be- 
tween the  Persian  and  Greek  are  owing,  probably,  to 
phonetic  principles  common  to  them  both,  under  simi- 
lar climatic  influences.  The  Welsh,  although  a  Celtic 
language,  agrees  with  the  Persian  phonetically,  as  much 
or  nearly  so  at  least  as  does  the  classic  Greek.  How 
often  is  what  is  plausible  proved  to  have  been  only  so 
by  wider  research.  The  chief  point  of  correspondence 
between  the  Persian  and  Greek,  as  also  the  Welsh,  is 
the  general  substitution  of  *  h,  for  s  in  the  Sanskrit, 


Sanscrit. 

Zend. 

Greek. 

Welsh. 

sa,  she 

ha 

V 

hi 

saptan,  seven 

hapta 

eVra 

sara,  salt 

a\i 

halen 

svar,  the  sua 

hvare 

T^KtOS 

heol 

sam,  with 

ham 

Sua 

evo 

THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  59 

especially  in  initial  syllables.  The  induction  therefore 
of  facts,  in  this  direction,  is  not  yet  sufficiently  wide 
and  clear,  to  make  a  proper  foundation  for  the  state- 
ment, that  there  is  any  absolute  connection  between 
them.  On  any  supposition,  the  Hellenic  development 
must  have  been,  in  all  its  higher  aspects,  a  matter  of 
home-growth.  Its  characteristics  are  all  indigenous. 
Persia  had  not,  until  the  time  of  Cyrus  (b.  c.  560),  any 
high  or  even  distinct  character  of  its  own.  Under  him 
the  Persians  came,  by  contact  with  the  cultivated  na- 
tions that  he  conquered  and  with  the  men  and  institu- 
tions of  Judea,  to  receive  impressions  that  awakened  in 
them  the  consciousness  of  new  wants  and  the  iuipulse 
to  new  activity  and  enterprise.  Donaldson  therefore 
and  some  few  others  speak  too  decisively,  of  Persian  in- 
fluence upon  Grecian  progress.  As  the  present  Ger- 
man, technically  called  the  New  High  German,  was 
gradually  advanced  under  the  slow  action  of  centuries, 
by  Luther's  time,  from  the  original  Gothic,  as  found 
existing  in  Ulfilas'  translation  of  the  Scriptures  (a.  d. 
380) ;  and  is  so  different  from  its  first  beginnings,  that 
a  native  himself  cannot  unravel  them,  without  as  much 
close  study  as  if  upon  a  foreign  tongue :  so,  Hellenic 
Greek  was  slow^ly  moulded,  under  the  pressure  of  indi- 
vidual energy,  character  and  experience,  by  many  hands 
in  su(!cessive  ages,  into  the  grand  and  elegant  propor- 
tions, in  which  it  has  ever  since  stood  high  and  firm,  as 
the  most  finished  artistic  structm^e  of  the  elements  of 


60  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OP 

language,  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Says  Niebuhr : 
"  The  Hellenes  and  Pelasgians  were  kindred  nations  ; 
identity  of  religion  and  similarity  of  language  connected 
them  with  each  other.  Here  we  find  a  fundamental 
difference  and  a  fundamental  relationship,  bound  to- 
gether by  an  inexplicable  law."  On  his  theory  of  a 
difference  of  races,  the  combination  is  an  enigma ;  but 
not  at  all  on  our  theory,  that  the  difference  between 
them  was  merely  a  difference  in  the  stages  of  growth 
of  the  same  race.  Let  it  then  be  remembered  care- 
fully that  the  terms  Pelasgic  and  Hellenic  simply  de- 
scribe different  historic  eras  of  the  same  people,  and 
not  differences  at  all  of  national  origin. 

The  domain  of  the  Greek  language  was  coexten- 
sive with  the  colonies  and  conquests  of  that  ever-busy 
moving  people.  The  term  Gr^cia  was  apphed  in  fact 
to  two  countries :  Graecia  Antiqua  or  Greece  Proper, 
and  Graecia  Magna  or  the  south-eastern  portion  of  Italy. 
Por,  at  a  very  early  day,  colonies  from  Greece  crossed 
the  Adriatic,  and  spread  themselves  over  Lucania, 
Apulia  and  Calabria,  and  covered  up  ere  long  in  their 
overflow  all  traces  of  the  original  population  and  the 
dialects  that  they  had  spoken.  But,  while  the  colonists 
of  Magna  Grascia  contributed  largely  to  the  develop- 
ment of  Greek  literature,  the  mother-country  always 
wore  the  crown  of  intellectual  supremacy.  Her  colo- 
nies filled  the  islands  of  the  jEgean  Sea  and  belted  its 
shores,  on  both  the  European  and  Asiatic  coasts,  and 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  01 

spread  even  northwards,  around  the  upper  and  under 
sides  of  the  Baltic,  By  the  victorious  arms  also  of  Al- 
exander, Greek  ideas,  influences,  institutions  and  minds 
were  planted  over  all  the  East,  from  Macedonia  to  the 
Indus  and  around  about  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean 
to  Alexandria  in  Egypt.  To  the  Greeks  the  world  is 
indebted  for  literature,  grammar,  philosophy  and  art, 
beyond  any  other  nation.  With  the  abounding  infor- 
mation of  scholars  concerning  Greek  literature,  and  the 
facile  helps  at  hand  everywhere  for  obtaining  it ;  it  is 
not  necessary,  of  course,  to  mention  in  detail  the  splen- 
did structures  of  thought,  that,  with  such  amazing  skill 
and  zeal,  they  reared  for  the  advantage  and  admiration 
alike  of  all  ages.  In  the  Pelasgic  period,  the  Greeks, 
as  was  natural  in  their  weakness  and  amid  the  rude  be- 
ginnings of  pioneer  life,  when  every  thing  lay  new  and 
unclaimed  by  others  before  them,  were  peaceful  and  la- 
borious ;  but,  in  the  Hellenic  or  more  cultivated  period, 
the  arts  of  war  sprang  up,  and  commerce  and  conquest 
extended  the  power  of  Greece  in  all  directions.  In  the 
Homeric  poems,  the  oldest  monument  of  the  Greek 
tongue,  we  see  the  three  leading  dialects,  the  /Eolic, 
Ionic  and  Attic,  all  variously  appearing  together  on  the 
stage.  The  language  was  then  still,  to  a  great  degree, 
in  a  transition -state,  casting  off  its  old  skin  and  taking 
on  a  new  one.  Homer  is  as  dear  to  the  philologist,  as 
to  the  poet,  presenting  a  rich  array  of  curiosities  and 
treasures  to  his  delighted  gaze ;  and,  all  the  more,  as 


62  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

liis  two  great  poems  stand,  not  only  nearest  the  first 
beginnings  of  Greek  nationality,  but  also  by  themselves, 
in  solitary  sublime  splendor  in  that  far-off  position. 
Nor  are  they  ruins  :  every  column  of  these  magnificent 
structui'cs  remains  in  its  place,  as  when  set  up  by  his 
hands,  and  every  line  of  grace  and  beauty  is  as  freshly 
caiTed  and  as  distinct,  as  if  the  artist's  spirit  were  still 
lingering,  responsive  to  our  gaze,  within  his  w^ork. 

Giese,  in  his  TEolische  Dialekt,  draws  incidentally 
a  picture  of  the  pre-Hellenic  period,  in  somewhat  the 
same  spirit,  or  style  at  least,  in  which  geologists  de- 
scribe the  pre-Adamite  earth,  too  graphic  and  inter- 
esting to  be  lost.  In  that  archaic  unhistoric  period 
he  says,  for  substance :  "  No  opposition  had  grown  up, 
as  afterwards,  against  the  consonant  F  or  Digamma,  im- 
ported from  Phoenicia,  and  the  Sibilant  S.  The  half 
vowel  y  (Latin  i),  afterwards  wanting,  was  then  in 
vogue.  The  vow^el-hues  of  w^ords  w^re  not  multiplied, 
as  afterwards.  The  vowel  a  was  the  common  vowel- 
sound,  as  in  Sanskrit,  used  in. the  utterance  of  all  con- 
sonantal sounds ;  w^hich  afterward  scame  to  be  changed, 
in  so  many  cases,  into  its  weaker  or  stronger  cognates 
i,  t],  o  \  and  the  diphthongs  ai,  tc,  ol,  were  but  of  in- 
frequent occurrence.  Consonantal  changes  were  few. 
The  aspirate  was  not  in  existence  or,  if  so,  only  as  a  conso- 
nant. Euphonic  mutations  were  few,  being  guided  by 
only  simple  natural  principles,  of  convenience  or  pleasure ; 
and  not,  as  afterwards,  brought  to  a  state  of  scientific 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  C3 

and  artistic  elaboration.  The  rejection  of  consonants, 
when  final,  had  not  yet  grown  into  extensive  use ;  nor 
had  the  principle  of  assimilation  yet  become  strong. 
The  aspirating  influence  of  a  c?  or  ;t  on  a  smooth  mute 
preceding  or  following  it  had  hardly  yet  shoAvn  itself. 
So  also  vowel-contractions,  the  result  of  active  business- 
habits  of  life  and  speech  and  so  an  after-growth,  had 
not  yet  occurred  to  any  great  extent.  The  whole  sub- 
ject of  case-development  was  still,  in  a  simple  uncom- 
plicated state.  Prepositions  had  not  yet  come  into 
much  use,  as  helps  and  additions  to  case-endings  ;  and, 
when  used,  were  employed  to  a  great  extent  adverbially. 
The  demonstrative  pronoun  had  not  yet  taken  on  also 
the  aspect  of  the  definite  article.  The  signification  of 
words  in  this  primitive  state  of  the  language  was,  in 
reference  to  some  classes  of  them,  more  specific  and,  in 
reference  to  others,  more  general  than  afterwards,  when, 
by  the  increase  of  ideas  and  the  multiplication  of  wants, 
the  same  words  came  to  have  many  more  shades  of 
meaning."  Secondary  meanings  and  niultiform  senses 
of  the  same  w^ords  keep  ever  growing  up  in  any  living 
language,  however  stable,  as  the  people,  who  use  them 
as  the  medium  of  exchange  in  the  world  of  thought, 
expand  perpetually  over  a  wider  area  of  activity  and  en- 
largement. In  the  description  furnished  above,  of  the 
contrasts  that  existed  in  the  Pelasgic  and  Hellenic  pe- 
riods, though  general  and  brief,  the  student  will  find 
an  accurate  outline  of  the  style  of  changes  wrought 


64  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

in  the  Greek  language,  as  it  became  more  and  more 
moulded  into  its  final  classic  form. 

The  Modern  living  representative  of  the  Greek  is  the 
Romaic  or  Modern  Greek,  into  which  the  Ancient  Greek 
has  at  last  dropped,  from  its  Byzantine  corruptions ;  but 
which  much  more  resembles  its  progenitor,  than  the 
Romanic  languages  do  the  Latin.  The  Modern  Greek 
reigns  over  substantially  the  same  region,  as  did  the  An- 
cient. It  has  however  so  changed  from  its  first  form  and 
features,  while  still  remaining  as  a  Guardian  Angel  in 
the  home  of  its  early  splendor,  watching  the  precious  rel- 
ics of  the  past :  that,  could  the  men  of  elder  times  rise 
from  the  dust  to  gaze  upon  its  face  and  figure,  they 
would  stand  wondering  long  at  its  strange  appearance. 
And  yet  its  changes  are  chiefly  those  in  its  mere  out- 
ward aspect.  The  old  visage  soon  reveals  itself  again, 
to  an  eye  that  keeps  looking  inquiringly  after  it.  It  is 
Greek  still,  that  the  dwellers  of  the  Peloponnesus  and 
Hellas  and  Epirus  and  Thessaly  and  Macedonia  and 
Thrace,  although  called  now  by  other  names,  yet  speak. 
The  peculiarities  of  Modern  Greek  are  various.  The 
tendency  of  the  ancient  Greek,  to  exalt  the  deep  u-sound 
of  other  languages  to  the  high  i-sound,  as  in  the  French 
u  and  German  ue,  has  not  only  been  kept  in  Modern 
Greek,  but  extended  also  to  other  vowels  as  ;/,  tt,  and 
0L\  /8  is  pronounced  nearly  as  our  v  and  /  like  y,  ex- 
cept before  a  and  o  where  it  is  sounded  as  gh,  and  be- 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  65 

fore  at,  i  and  i  where  it  is  pronounced  as  y :  ^  is 
sounded  nearly  like  dh  and  ^  like  our  z. 

In  the  Albanian,  the  probable  representative  of  a 
more  primitive  Illyrian,  spoken  along  the  eastern  coast 
of  the  Adriatic,  we  have  a  language,  which  seems  to  re- 
semble both  it  and  the  Latin  in  combination,  and  to 
have  grown  up,  as  a  seedling,  in  that  primitive  Graeco- 
Italic  period,  in  which  neither  the  Greek  nor  Latin  had 
any  distinct,  separate  existence :  a  living  specimen  of 
the  primeval  language  of  Southern  Europe,  retaining 
still  its  first  identity  unimpaired.  It  resembles  of  course 
the  Latin  much  more  than  the  Hellenic  Greek.  It 
contains  also  a  few  Gothic  words,  as  a  memorial  of  the 
incursions  made  upon  their  fathers  by  that  fierce  tribe 
of  warriors,  who,  under  Alaric,  swooped  down  in  the 
fifth  century  upon  them  from  the  North,  and  devoured 
them  and  all  their  resources  throughout  northern  Epi- 
rus.  And,  so,  also  in  succeeding  centuries  (the  seventh, 
eighth  and  ninth),  Slavonian  tribes,  the  Bulgarians  and 
Servians,  made  irruptions  upon  them :  as  human  wolves 
have,  in  all  ages,  delighted  to  prey  upon  weak  defence- 
less lambs ;  and  they  have  left  many  proofs,  in  the 
names  of  places  as  weM  as  in  the  ordinary  staple  ele- 
ments of  the  language  itself,  that  they  came  not  in 
vain  out  of  their  forest-lairs  :  while  yet  the  evidence  is 
equally  clear,  in  the  relatively  small  impression  that  they 
made  upon  the  language,  as  a  whole,  that  they  found 
the  Epirotes  a  brave  people,  who  knew  well  how  to 


66 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 


cover,  by  their  arms,  their  altars  and  their  iires  from 
the  approach  of  invaders.  So,  also,  Avhile  the  Albanian 
tongue  contains  in  itself  many  signs  of  commercial  con- 
tact, at  different  times  and  to  different  degrees,  with 
various  people,  as  the  Germans,  Swedes,  Danes,  Eng- 
lish, Turks  and  others,  yet,  in  respect  to  this  class  of 
distm'bing  influences,  the  great  staple  substratum  of  its 
words  remains  still  homogeneous  and  unique.  The 
Albanians"  call  themselves  Skipetars,  or  mountaineers. 
There  are  different  dialects  of  the  Albanian,  which  is 
also  called  the  Arnautic ;  as  of  every  other  language 
that  has  stretched  over  much  space  or  over  much  time : 
the  two  principal  ones,  the  Geghian  or  Northern  and 
the  Toskian  or  Southern,  prevailing,  the  former  in  the 
regions  of  northern  Illyria,  and  the  latter  in  Epirus. 
Every  thing  new  pertaining  to  the  Albanians,  as  to  the 
Celts,  is  hailed  with  special  delight  by  philologists,  on 
account  of  their  connection,  genetically,  with  the  old 
Ill3rrian  stock  of  the  earliest  settlers  of  Greece. 

*  A  view  of  some  Albanian  correspondences  with  the  Greek: 


Iban 

ian. 

Greek. 

Albanian. 

Greek. 

1. 

vd 

1.   el;  for  'ifS 

1. 

irape 

-poJTos 

2. 

Si 

2.   cio 

2. 

Sire 

icVTCpOi 

3. 

rpl 

3.    Tor'i 

3. 

Tpife 

Tpiros 

i. 

KOLTCp 

4.    rirrupa 

4. 

KOLTlpTC 

TCTTaOTOS 

5. 

mae 

0.     1T£VTC 

5. 

TTtaCTC 

irifizros 

So 

compare  also 

Albanian, 

Greek. 

Latin. 

aiTTtp,           over. 

inif, 

super. 

KivT,           a  hundred. 

Iwarci, 

centum. 

vas,             afterwards 

OTTtcOf, 

post. 

THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  07 

Schleicher's  fivefold  division  of  the  historical  epochs 
of  the  Greek  language,  deserves  a  record  and  notice 
here : 

I.  The  Classic  period  ;  and  this  in  two  portions. 
1st.  That  of  the  contemporaneous  flowering  forth 

of  the  different  dialects  in  full  vigor :  fi'om  Homer  to 
Pindar. 

2d.  That  of  the  Attic  dialect,  when  fully  tri- 
umphant. 

II.  The  Alexandrine  period,  in  which  "  the  Com- 
mon Greek"  became  evolved  out  of  the  Attic. 

III.  The  Roman  period. 

IV.  The  Byzantine,  after  the  removal  of  the  seat 
of  empire  to  Constantinople,  at  which  time  its  forms 
were  much  bruised  and  broken.  As  Byzantium  was 
called  NcAV  Rome,  the  New  Greek  came  to  be  denomi- 
nated the  Romaic,  as  it  is  often  termed  now. 

V.  The  strictly  and  fuUy  New  Greek  period  since 
1453. 

The  primitive  ancestors  of  the  Indo-European  na- 
tions, whether  in  their  original  eastern  home  or  their 
subsequent  western  one,  were  evidently  but  httle  ad- 
vanced in  the  arts  of  life.  They  were  probably,  as 
says  Prichard,  "  ignorant  of  the  use  of  iron  and  other 
metals,  since  the  terms  used  to  denote  them  are  fun- 
damentally different  in  their  various  languages ;  and 
must  therefore,  it  would  seem,  have  been  adopted  sub- 
sequently to  the  era  of  the  individual  languages  de- 


68  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

rived  from  the  parent  stock.  What  coiild  be  more 
unhke,  than  ;/qvo6^,  am'um  and  gold  or  oid/]Qog,  fer- 
rum  and  iron."  The  use  of  letters  was  also  entirely 
unknown  to  the  Arian  nations,  to  those  at  least  which 
passed  into  Europe ;  and  it  was  introduced  among 
them,  in  long  after  ages,  by  the  Phoenicians. 

The  physical  aspects  of  Greece  and  of  Hindustan 
were  widely  various ;  and  great  indeed  was  the  con- 
trast of  their  influence,  as  well  as  of  that  of  their  dif- 
ferent climates,  upon  the  generations  of  men  that  were 
brought,  from  age  to  age,  into  inevitable  connection 
with  them.  Within  the  Arian  horizon  of  the  Indo- 
European  mind,  were  immense  mountains,  mighty 
rivers,  impassable  forests,  inextricable  jungles  and 
boundless  deserts,  with  all  the  fervors  of  a  tropical  cli- 
mate, its  tempests,  its  wild  beasts  and  its  pestilences. 
Under  such  a  constant  series  of  lessons  about  the  natu- 
ral impotence  of  man,  with  such  awe-inspiring  and  ter- 
rific shadows  ever  resting  on  his  bosom,  from  the 
gigantic  forms  of  nature  by  which  he  was  surrounded, 
is  it  strange  that,  in  the  barren  feeble  state  of  heathenism, 
the  Indo-European  mind  succumbed,  in  India,  to  the 
force  of  smTounding  influences,  and  lay  prostrate  in 
conscious  weakness  at  the  feet  of  Eate.  How  different 
a  realm  for  the  growth  of  that  divinely-gifted  style  of 
mind,  was  Greece!  Its  coasts  furnished  abundant 
points  of  departure  for  all  the  world  beside :  its  rivers 
were  short  and  nan-ow ;  its  mountains,  though  many. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  69 

were  small :  large  enough  to  stand  like  closed  gates 
in  the  way  of  huiTicanes  from  the  sea  and  of  pestilences 
from  abroad,  as  well  as  to  furnish  many  a  secret  home 
for  Liberty,  sweet  Mountain-Nymph;  but  not  large 
enoudi  to  for  ever  remind  men  of  then*  littleness  and 
baffle  all  their  aspirations  of  enterprise  and  hope.  In 
India  the  lesson  ever  thundered  in  a  heathen's  ear  by 
Nature  so  misinterpreted  by  him,  was  fear,  despond- 
ency, helplessness;  while,  in  Greece,  the  lesson  read 
was  hope,  courage,  effort.  Whenever  Christianity  shall 
have  the  opportunity,  to  interpret  rightly  the  great  les- 
sons of  Nature  in  India  :  Christianity,  A^dth  her  eye  of 
faith  and  voice  of  prayer  and  songs  of  praise  even  in 
the  night :  Nature  wiU  be  found  there  as  everywhere, 
to  be  man's  helper  on  earth  and  his  guide  to  Heaven. 
In  some  parts  of  the  earth,  the  deep  and  solemn  base  of 
her  wondrous  diapason  is  struck ;  while  in  others  only 
the  lighter  notes  are  heard ;  but  all  unite,  each  in  its 
proper  way,  in  grand  chorus  in  the  universal  Hymn  of 
"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest."  If  God  be  left  out  of 
the  human  heart  or  nature  is  thought  of  as  unoccupied 
by  Him,  chscord  is  introduced  at  once  into  the  vision 
of  His  works,  and  their  influence,  as  felt  upon  the 
heart  in  such  a  way,  is  only  perverted  and  evil.  The 
advocates  of  intensely  materialistic  views  of  human  his- 
tory, hke  Buckle,  forget  in  their  great  over-estimate  of 
the  normal  action  of  nature  upon  man,  that  national 
development  everywhere  but  in  Europe,  where  it  has 


70  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

been  most  free  in  its  spirit  and  most  grand  in  its  pro- 
portions, lias  occuiTed  only  in  circumstances  where  not 
only  no  preparation  was  made  mthin,  in  tlie  states  and 
forces  of  the  mind,  for  its  real  greatness  or  goodness, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  every  possible  energy  was  framed 
and  set  in  motion,  to  prevent  a  divine  result. 

2d.  The  Italic  Family. 

Three  distinct  races  originally  peopled  Italy,  namely : 
the  lapygian,  Etruscan  and  Italian.  In  later  times 
Carthaginian  arms,  ideas  and  influences  swept  over 
Sicily,  where  Greek  colonies  had  previously  planted  the 
institutions  and  customs  of  their  native  land,  as  also, 
over  all  southern  Italy;  while  in  northern  Italy  on 
either  side  of  the  Po,  in  Cisalpine  Gaul,  men  of  Celtic 
blood  were  rioting  on  the  abmidance  of  what  was  then, 
and  has  been  ever  since,  the  garden  of  Italy.  In 
Magna  Grsecia,  at  the  lower  end  of  Italy,  the  Greek 
was  spoken,  as,  in  Gallia  Cisalpina  at  the  upper  end,  a 
GaUic  idiom  was  spoken ;  but,  in  the  north  especially, 
no  such  foreign  idiom  was  cherished  with  hereditary 
interest  and  perseverance,  as  a  badge  of  national  dis- 
tinction or  affection.  In  the  extreme  part  of  south- 
eastern Italy,  a  considerable  number  of  inscriptions  has 
been  found,  whose  language  is  essentially  different  from 
that  of  all  the  other  dialects  of  the  land.  It  possesses, 
like  the  Greek,  the  aspu'ated  consonants.  Its  genitive 
forms  aihi  and  ihi  answer  to  the  Sanskiit  asya  and 
Greek  oto,  and  indicate  its  origin,  although  not  yet 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  71 

itself  deciphered,  to  be  quite  certainly  Indo-European. 
These  inscriptions  are  regarded  as  lapygian ;  and  the 
race  that  spoke  it  are  believed  also  to  have  prevailed 
at  an  early  date  in  Apulia.  As  the  emigrations  of 
masses  are,  at  the  first,  always  landward ;  since  sea- 
ward movements  presuppose  too  great  a  knowledge  of 
navigation,  for  the  first  barbarous  periods  of  history ; 
and  as  the  lapygians  occupied  the  outermost  verge  of 
the  peninsula,  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  they  con- 
stituted the  first  race,  that  ever  came  from  the  East 
into  Italy.  Like  the  Celts,  dwelling  at  last  on  the 
flanks  of  Western  Europe,  they  were  pushed  farther  and 
farther  from  their  first  resting-place,  by  each  successive 
tide  of  emigration  behind  them,  until  they  became 
lodged  in  the  wilds  and  fastnesses  of  Messapia  and  Ca- 
labria, to  be  di'iven  from  these  their  last  homes,  rocky 
and  ocean-bound,  no  more. 

As  to  the  Etruscans,  it  is  a  question  of  much  doubt 
among  scholars,  what  was  the  origin  of  this  ancient  and 
interesting  tribe.     Donaldson*  has  a  theory  on  the  sub- 

*  All  praise  to  Donaldson,  who  is  both  learned  and  ingenious,  for 
his  elForts  to  unveil  to  English  ej^es  the  charms  of  the  new  and  de- 
lightful science  of  classical  philology.  But  since,  in  the  absence  of 
higher  and  truer  standards  in  this  department  of  study  in  our  lan- 
guage, many  are  disposed  to  look,  with  false  confidence  and  even  ad- 
miration, to  him  for  light;  it  seems  well  to  caution  alike  the  novice 
and  the  general  student  of  language,  to  remember  that  whatever  in 
Donaldson  is  general,  and  so  lies  within  the  field  of  this  science  at 
large,  deserves  acceptance  from  him  as  it  would  at  the  hands  of  any 
other  good  compiler  or  system-maker;  but  that  whatever  is  distinctly 
Donaldsonian  is  of  rather  suspicious  value. 


72  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

ject,  whicli  he  utters,  like  every  thing  else  of  his  own 
invention,  with  great  assurance.  He  regards  the 
Etruscan  language  as  in  part  a  Pelasgian  idiom,  more 
or  less  corrupted  by  the  Umbrian,  and  in  part  a  relic 
of  the  oldest  Low-German  or  Scandinavian  dialects. 
They  were  composed,  accordingly,  in  his  view,  of  two 
main  elements  as  a  people,  namely :  Tyn'heno-Pelas- 
gians,  more  or  less  intermixed  with  Umbrians  and 
Rsetians  or  Low-Germans :  the  former  prevailing  in  the 
South,  and  the  latter,  in  the  north-western  parts  of 
Etruria.  But  the  origin  of  the  Tuscans,  notwithstand- 
ing this  bold  analysis  of  their  elementary  constitution 
as  a  people,  still  remains  an  unresolved  enigma.  The 
alphabet  of  the  Etruscan  language  is  an  archaic  form  of 
the  Hellenic.  While  its  grammatical  structure,  so  far 
as  yet  ascertained,  is  manifestly  Indo-European,  there 
are  so  many  and  so  great  variations  in  the  t)'pes  of  its 
words,  as  to  have  quite  bafHed  all  attempts  hitherto  at 
an  accurate  lexical  analysis  of  their  nature.  The  mys- 
tery will  undoubtedly  be  unravelled  in  futm'e  years,  as 
new  discoveries  shall  be  made  of  ancient  inscriptions 
not  yet  disclosed  to  our  view.  It  is  certainly  one  of 
the  many  marvels  of  our  day,  that  so  much  of  the 
minute  full  history  of  the  past  has  been  recovered  to 
modern  eyes,  from  records  bm'ied  for  safe  keeping  un- 
der ground  too  deeply  to  be  found  and  clawed  up  by 
any  of  the  vengeful  conquerors  of  the  past,  whose  vul- 
ture-hearts would  eagerly  have   pounced   upon   such 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  73 

prey.  The  East  is  fiill  of  such  unopened  piles  of  the 
treasured  past ;  and  so  is  Southern  Italy.  But  as 
grammatical  correspondence  is  the  great  test  of  relation- 
ship between  languages,  we  are  safe,  whatever  discov- 
eries may  be  hereafter  made  concerning  it,  in  assigning 
definitely  to  the  Etruscan  a  place,  although  not  one  of 
high  honor  on  account  of  its  mixed  and  barbarous  style 
of  structure,  in  the  Indo-European  family.  In  respect 
to  the  heterogeneousness  of  its  lexical  elements,  it  is 
worth  remarking  that  some  languages  mix  much  more 
evenly  together  than  others;  and  that  the  style  of 
modern  lingual  development,  generally,  is  very  much 
more  mixed  than  in  ancient  days,  as  the  nations  of  the 
world  themselves  mingle  in  peaceful  intercourse  more 
widely  with  each  other.  Whatever  language  it  was 
that  entered  into  combination  with  the  original  staple 
elements  of  the  Etruscan,  it  must  have  been  of  a  wild 
uncultivated  sort,  as  the  resulting  product  is  at  best  but 
an  unsightly  hybrid.  The  stock  of  words  incorporated 
from  the  Etruscan  into  the  Latin  tongue,  was  exceed- 
ingly small :  not  more  numerous  than  the  supply  of 
Chinese  words  in  English.  They  are  such  as  balteus* 
a  girdle,  cassis  a  helmet,  lituus  an  augur's  staff,  and 
Larf  a  household  god :  all  but  the  last  names  of  special 
instruments. 

*  English  belt. 

t  Scotch  laird,  and  English  lord  or  lady,  in  respect  to  which  last 
compare,  for  form,  dame  and  dam,  (French,  dame)  with  domina  and 
dominus. 


74  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OY 

Some  peculiarities  serving  to  identify  and  isolate 
their  language,  as  a  separate  branch  of  the  Indo-Euro- 
pean family,  are  these  :  1 .  They  had  none  of  the  me- 
dial mutes  (b,  g,  d.)  Hence  they  substituted  the 
smooth  mutes  for  them,  in  their  equivalent  forms  of  the 
Greek  words  in  which  they  occurred,  as  in  Tute  for 
Tvdtvg,  Utuze  for  'Oduaaavg,  Melakre  for  MslsayQog. 
2.  They  frequently  changed  smooth  mutes  into  rough, 
as  in  Atresthe  and  Thethis,  Tuscan  forms  of  "AdQaOrog 
and  OtTCQ. 

The  Italian  race  occupied  the  central  part  of  Italy. 
From  this  race  that  large  peninsula  obtained  its  name 
and  character.  They  were  at  the  outset  its  great  lead- 
ing race,  and  became  ere  long  the  conquerors  of  Italy 
and  subsequently  of  the  world.  In  them  we  see  the 
great  Western  home-growth,  in  a  separate  form,  of  the 
same  Grseco-Italic  people  which  swarmed  in  the  Pe- 
lasgic  period  from  the  East  into  Europe :  a  large  frag- 
ment of  which  remained  behind  in  Greece,  and  became 
so  greatly  enlarged,  refined  and  beautified  in  the  Hel- 
lenic period,  by  the  aid  also  of  successive  emigrations, 
from  the  more  cultivated  regions  of  the  eastern  coast 
of  the  JEgean.  These  successive  emigrations  none  of 
them  reached  Italy,  to  overlay  the  broad  and  rugged 
proportions  of  her  pioneer  colonization,  as  in  Greece, 
with  richer  and  deeper  elements  of  national  advance- 
ment. The  home-growth  of  the  Greek  ofF-shoot  of  the 
common  original  Graeco-Italic  stock,  was  maintained 


THE  INDO-EUROPEAN  LANGUAGES.        75 

constantly  nnder  the  powerful  ministry  of  the  most 
quickening  and  enlarging  influences  ever  flowing  in 
upon  it,  in  both  its  nascent  and  formative  state.  The 
home-growth,  on  the  contrary,  of  the  twin  Italic  off- 
shoot of  the  same  parent  stock,  was  perfected  entirely 
by  itself  and  with  none  of  the  overflow  of  a  higher  civ- 
ilization, from  age  to  age,  upon  it  serving  to  enrich  the 
soil  upon  which  it  was  planted. 

The  two  principal  branches  of  the  Italic  race,  when 
defined  by  a  chstinct  growth  of  their  own  into  fixed 
proportions,  were  the  Latin  and  the  Umbrian,  which 
last  includes  also  the  Marsi  and  the  Samnites  or  Oscans. 
The  more  deeply  investigators  penetrate  into  the  differ- 
ent dialects  of  this  race,  the  more  closely  do  they  find 
them  to  be  connected  with  the  Latin.  While  the  re- 
mains of  the  Umbrian  are  very  scanty,  those  of  the 
Samnite  or  Oscan  dialects  are  more  abmidant.  Sam- 
nium,  the  home  of  the  Oscans,  is  but  a  contraction  of 
Sabinium,  the  land  of  the  Sabines.  The  vowel-system 
of  the  Oscan  dialect,  as  is  evident  from  many  inscrip- 
tions, was  preserved  much  more  intact  than  that  of  the 
Latin  or  Umbrian.  Einal  consonants  also  were  less 
mutilated.  The  locative  case  maintained  its  position, 
while  the  ablative  kept  its  original  d  final;  and  the 
dative  and  accusative  adhered  much  more  closely  to 
their  primitive  type,  than  in  the  other  dialects.  The 
Latin  itseff  is,  contrary  to  the  once  prevailing  idea  of  its 
composite  character,  a  simple,  unmixed  language  hke 


76  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

the  Greek :  as  they  are  also  each  a  disthict  and  strongly 
individualized  demonstration  under  different  influences, 
of  the  same  original  common  tongue.  In  the  Oscan 
and  Umbrian  dialects  we  see  what  the  Latin  must  have 
originally  been,  before  taking  on  any  separate  laws  of 
development  of  its  own. 

Of  the  Volscian  and  Marsian  dialects  we  have 
hardly  sufficient  traces,  to  be  able  to  classify  them  with 
certainty.  Of  the  Sabine,  here  and  there  a  solitary  ray 
shines  glimmering  in  provincial  Latin.  The  Latin 
stands  related  to  all  this  Umbro-Samnite  class  of  special 
dialects,  as  in  Greek  the  Ionic  to  the  Doric  dialect ; 
while  the  differences  of  the  Oscan  and  Umbrian  and 
their  allied  dialects  may  be  compared  with  those  of  the 
Doric  dialect,  as  found  in  the  two  regions  of  Sicily  and 
Sparta.  These  different  Italic  dialects  all  point  to  their 
original  union  in  one  parent  stem,  in  possessing  as  they 
do  not  only  many  roots  in  common,  but  also  many  ex- 
actly identical  words ;  while  their  flexional  forms  also 
agree  in  the  mode  of  their  stnicture. 

The  peculiarities  which  individualize  this  whole 
family  of  dialects,  as  a  distinct  branch  of  the  Indo-Eu- 
ropean stock  of  languages,  are  worthy  of  notice.  They 
are  such  as  these  :  Aspirates  were  not  originally  favorite 
with  them,  while  with  the  Greeks  and  Etruscans  they 
were.  The  finer  breath-sounds,  s,  v,  y,  which  the 
Greeks  disliked,  they  cherished.  Sibilants,  indeed, 
constitute  a  marked  feature  of  the  old  Italian  languages. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  77 

Consonants  they  maintained  at  the  end  of  a  word  with 
firmness.  By  the  retrogressive  tendency  of  their  prin- 
ciples of  accentnation  in  inflected  and  compound  words, 
end-syllables  were  weakened  and  shortened  in  Latin, 
much  more  than  in  Greek.  Vowels,*  accordingly,  at  the 
end  of  words,  except  inflexion-endings  where  they  form 
diphthongs  or  represent  contracted  forms,  are  short. 
The  ingenious  and  compact  mechanism  of  the  Greek,  in 
the  preparation  of  the  different  tense-forms  by  prefixes, 
suffixes,  vowel-substitutions  and  various  consonantal 
changes,  was  unknown  to  them.  The  different  tense- 
stems  were  formed,  by  compounding  with  the  theme  of 
the  verb  the  auxiliary  roots — es  f  and — fu.  The  dual  j 
number,  both  in  the  noun  and  verb,  was  rejected  as 
superfluous.  The  ablative  which  was  lost  in  Greek, 
was  here  retained  ;  while  the  sense  of  the  original  San- 
skrit locative  was  also  engrafted  on  it  frequently,  and 

*  Hence  the  rules  of  prosody,  that  a  and  e  final  are  short ;  while 
i  final  in  the  second  declension  (being  contracted  from  Sanskrit  sja 
in  the  genitive  and  in  the  plural  nom.  from  Sansk.  as)  and  also  u  final 
in  the  ablative  (contracted  from  -ud,  the  original  Latin  ablative  suffix) 
are  long. 

t  Es,  as  in  sum  (for  esumi)  ;  Greek  ea,  as  in  elfii  (for  fV/i/) ;  San- 
skrit as.  as  in  asmi,  I  am :  is  the  base  of  one  of  the  two  verb-forms 
signifying  to  be,  which  run  through  the  whole  range  of  the  Indo- 
European  languages  ;  while  the  other  is  in  Latin  fu  ;  in  Greek,  ^i;  (as 
in  (pvco),  and  in  Sanskrit,  bhu  ;  English,  ie;  Anglo-Saxon,  bcoj  Ger- 
man, bin. 

I  I\Iommsen  describes  this  in  a  quaint  wny.  He  says,  literally 
translated,  that  '•  the  strong  logic  of  the  Italians  seems  to  have  found 
no  reason  for  splitting  the  idea  of  moreness  into  twoness  and  much- 
ness." 


78  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

SO  preserved  witli  much,  more  distinctness  as  a  case 
than  in  Greek.  The  substantive-development  also  of 
the  verb  in  the  gerund,  was  peculiar  to  the  Latin. 

The  Latin  and  Umbrian  have  been  spoken  of,  as 
being  closely  related  to  each  other.  They  are  indeed  ; 
and  yet  they  are  quite  distinct  from  each  other  in  many 
of  their  forms.  The  most  important  remains,  now  left 
of  the  Umbrian,  are  the  seven  Eugubine  bronzed  tablets 
discovered  in  ancient  Iguvium,  now  called  Gubbio, 
whence  their  name.  The  greater  part  of  them  is  ^vrit- 
ten  in  an  old  native  alphabet  from  right  to  left,  and  was 
probably  prepared  about  400  b.  c.  ;  while  the  rest  ap- 
pears in  the  Roman  alphabet,  and  is  of  a  date,  as  is 
supposed,  of  about  200  years  afterwards.  The  phonetic 
value  of  the  same  letters  was  greatly  changed,  during 
so  short  a  period  in  the  language.  The  ancient  Latin 
and  old  Umbrian  mutually  explain  many  of  each  other's 
differences  and  difficulties.  In  the  Umbrian  the  Latin 
q  appears  as  p,  as  in  pis  ^"  for  quis  who,  and  nep  for 
neque  nor.  In  the  Samnite  the  genitive  of  words  in 
us,  is — eis,  in  the  Umbrian — es,  and  in  Latin — i  f  for 
-is     In  the  Umbrian  r  and  h  are  of  much  more  fre- 

*  Cf,  for  a  similar  interchange  of  the  labial  and  guttural,  inop.ai  and 
Irnros  j3Eo1.  t/c/cos-,  with  sequor  and  equus  (pronounced  originally  as  if 
sekor  and  ekus)  ;  also  Tonic  koIos  and  /co'repos  ■with  the  Attic  ttoIos-  and 
TTOTipos  and  Latin  quinque  (pronounced  by  the  Latins  kinke)  ■vrith 
iiivTf,  fire.  In  quispiam  for  quisquam,  and  nempe  for  namque,  we  have 
specimens  of  Umbrianized  Latin. 

t  Dominus,  gen.  domini  was  originally  domino-s,  gen.  domino-is  ; 
dat.  domiuo-i,  &c. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  79 

quent  occurrence  than  in  Latin.  R  is  nsed,  not  only 
in  the  conjugation  and  declension  of  the  verb  as  in 
Latin,  but  also  in  the  declensions  of  nouns  in  different 
cases ;  while  in  Latin,  except  in  nouns  whose  root  ends 
in  r,  it  is  found  only  in  the  genitive  plural.  The  Um- 
brians  did  not  like  1  and  b  :  never  using  1  at  the  begin- 
ning of  a  word  or  b  at  the  end.  Terminations  also  in 
the  Umbrian  were  greatly  mutilated  or  destroyed.  But 
in  the  retention  of  the  locative  and  of  the  genitive 
suffix — s  in  the  different  declensions,  the  Umbrian  pre- 
sents itself  before  us^  as  having  some  resemblances  to 
the  older  members  of  the  Indo-European  family,  that 
are  more  antique  than  even  those  of  the  Latin. 

The  Umbrians  occupied  in  ancient  times  the  north- 
ern half  of  Italy,  from  the  Tiber  to  the  Po ;  and  spread 
southerly  in  their  course,  along  the  Apennines  upon 
their  eastern  slope.  The  Latin  race  extended  in  the 
same  direction,  along  the  western  borders  of  Italy. 
The  Romans  called  their  own  language  Latin.  Its 
designation  as  Roman,  is  not  found  in  any  author 
earlier  than  Pliny,  and  in  him  but  once  in  a  poem  in 
his  "  Natural  History,"  The  Latins  early  covered  the 
ground  from  the  Tiber  to  the  Volscian  mountains  ;  and 
from  the  names  of  places  already  existing  there,  they 
seem  to  have  occupied  Campania  before  the  Samnite 
or  Hellenic  irruption  into  it.  Latium  proper  occupied 
but  a  small  district  between  the  Tiber,  the  Apennines, 
Mount  Alba  and  the  sea,  and  was  situated  on  a  broad 


80  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

plain,  as  the  name  itself  (latiis)  seems  to  indicate. 
This  plain  is  smi*ounded  on  every  side  by  mountains, 
except  where  it  is  bomided  by  the  Tiber  and  the  sea. 
It  is  level  on  an  extended  view ;  but,  when  surveyed  in 
detail,  it  is  found  to  be  broken  up  into  many  uneven- 
nesses  filled  with  innumerable  little  pools,  which,  from 
want  of  a  sufficient  Avatershed  for  drainage,  breed  in 
summer  now  as  in  ages  past  a  fatal  malaria,  which 
overhangs  its  plains  for  months  together,  breeding  dis- 
ease and  death.  And  yet  on  this  narrow  plain,  with 
the  sea  on  one  side  and  the  mountains  on  the  other : 
such  surroundings  as  environed  also  the  Grecian  mind  : 
was  to  appear  a  race  which  should  conquer  the  world 
by  arms,  as  the  Hellenes  had  by  arts  ;  and  long  after 
it  had  lost  its  civil  power,  should  yet  hold  in  its  iron 
grasp  the  souls  of  men  over  all  the  earth :  a  race  that 
in  one  form  or  another  was  destined  to  leave  its  im- 
press on  every  people  and  every  individual,  every 
hamlet  and  every  institution,  in  the  civilized  world. 
In  this  narrow  space  as  their  native  home,  the  Roman 
eagles  nestled  and  grew  to  greatness  for  almost  a  thou- 
sand years ;  and  when  those  eagles  ceased  to  appear  in 
all  the  earth,  there  came  forth  in  their  stead  from  that 
same  breeding-place  of  wonders,  where  it  still  lives  and 
riots  in  its  work  of  ruin,  a  scarlet-colored  beast  having 
seven  heads  and  ten  horns,  bearing  a  woman  drunk 
with  the  blood  of  saints  and  trampling  upon  the  necks 
of  prostrate  kings  and  princes. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  81 

The  climate  of  Latium  is  fitted  to  arouse  the  physi- 
cal energies,  and  to  induce  an  active  busy  restless 
style  of  life.  It  traverses  a  wide  range  of  temperature 
throughout  the  year,  and  frequently  in  either  direction 
through  every  point  of  the  scale  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest  degree,  as  in  our  North  American  atmos- 
phere, in  a  few  hours.  The  heats  in  summer  are  in- 
tense by  day  and  at  sunset  are  exchanged,  as  in  our 
northern  States,  for  a  dewy  and  chilled  state  of  the 
atmosphere  that  keeps  rapidly  cooling  down  for  some 
hours.  In  the  true  season  for  out-door  life,  every  thing 
around  and  above  seems  bright  and  exhilarating. 
Ethnology  and  philology  thus  maintain,  in  all  countries, 
the  closest  possible  connections  with  chmatology.  In- 
deed, as,  on  the  bosom  of  a  quiet  summer  stream,  all 
the  trees  and  herbage  of  the  bank  are  seen  mirrored  in 
clear  corresponding  perspective,  so,  in  the  poetry  and 
not  in  this  only  but  also  in  the  very  history,  character 
and  language  of  each  people,  the  skies  and  seas,  the 
hills  and  dales,  the  flora  and  fauna,  the  mists  and 
shades,  the  lights  and  heats  and  airs  of  surrounding 
nature  are  reflected.  Man  is  deeply  and  tenderly 
receptive  of  her  influence ;  and  at  the  basis  of  all  just 
interpretations  of  difl'erent  national  developments, 
viewed  as  historical  problems,  lies  rightly  understood  a 
true,  philosophic,  divinely  ordained  materialism.  It  is, 
in  other  words,  amid  different  types  of  nature  that  God 


82  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

casts,  as  in  a  mould,  tlie  different   mental   types  of 
mankind. 

Rome  itself  was  situated  on  tlie  Tiber,  cliiefly  on 
its  eastern  bank.  Down  to  the  times  of  the  Emperor 
Aurelian,  it  was  built  on  seven  hills ;  and  from  his  time 
to  the  present  it  has  extended  over  ten.  It  was,  like 
the  other  great  cities  of  ancient  times,  built  for  the 
sake  of  safety  from  invasion  by  water,  at  a  little  distance 
from  the  sea.  To  the  Romans  the  world  is  indebted, 
beyond  any  other  nation,  for  the  principles  of  law  and 
order  and  for  the  whole  frame-work  of  organized  social 
life.  The  Roman  mind  as  instinctively  tended  towards 
mechanism  in  every  thing,  as  a  salt  under  appropriate 
chemical  influences  does  to  crystallization.  The  syn- 
tactical structure,  accordingly,  of  the  Latin,  is  as  sharp, 
definite  and  uniform  in  its  angles,  as  the  laws  of 
crystallogeny  themselves  would  demand  a  given  crystal 
always  to  be.  The  language  itself  is  of  a  harder  ma- 
terial, than  the  Greek.  Its  characteristics  are  gravity, 
solidity  and  energy ;  while  those  of  the  Greek  are  a 
wonderful  vitality,  elasticity,  individuality  and  per- 
manency. The  Latin,  by  the  greater  contact  of  its 
people  with  other  men,  as  they  penetrated  with  their 
victories  and  th^ir  laws  among  them,  while  giving  out 
everywhere  its  own  light  and  heat  to  all  parts  of  the 
conquered  world,  received  in  return  an  impress  which 
was  never  left  upon  the  more  mobile  Greek,  from  the 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  83 

other  languages  whose  tides  of  influence  it  encoun- 
tered. 

The  Greek  had  several  beautiful  dialects  of  its  own, 
which  blossomed  in  strong  native  luxuriance  on  its 
shores  in  the  days  of  its  power,  like  so  many  differently 
colored  flowers  on  one  parent  stem  ;  while  in  modern 
times  it  appears  only  in  a  single  variety  of  the  original 
stock,  the  modern  Greek.  Not  so  however  with  the 
Latin,  which  at  tlie  first  stood  alone  in  its  own  simple 
majesty  without  division  or  diversification,  but  has  since, 
under  the  combined  action  of  many  influences,  burst 
forth  into  an  almost  wild  variety  of  forms,  m  the  differ- 
ent languages  of  modern  times. 

The  Latin  language,  as  we  have  it,  is  far  more  un- 
altered and  ancient  in  its  features  than  the  classic  or 
Hellenic  Greek ;  yet  it  must  not  be  forgotten,  that 
while  the  ultimate  roots  remained  the  same  the  forms 
themselves  of  the  original  words*  were  so  altered  in 
the  Augustan  age,  that  is,  in  the  classic  or  golden  age 

*  It  will  interest  the  classical  reader  to  see  a  specimen  or  two  of 
old  Latin : 

1.  From  the  laws  of  Numa  (700  b.  c.)  :  Sei  qui  hemonem  loebe- 
sum  dole  sciens  mortei  duit,  pariceidas  estod.  This  is  in  classical 
Latin :  Si  quis  hominem  liberum  dolo  sciens  morti  dederit  parricida 
esto. 

2.  A  Tribunitian  law  (493  b.  c.)  :  Sei  qui  aliuta  faxit,  ipsos  lovei 
sacer  estod,  et  sei  qui  im,  quei  eo  plcbi  scito  sacer  siet  ocisit,  pari- 
ceidas ne  estod.  That  is  :  Si  quis  alitor  feccrit  ipse  lovi  sacer  esto  ;  et 
si  quis  cum  qui  eo  plcbis  scito  sacer  sit  occiderit,  parricida  ne  sit. 

3.  An  inscription  on  L.  Scipio's  tomb  (2G0  b.  c.)  :  Hone  oinom 
ploirume  consentient  Komanei  duonorum  optimom  fuise  virom.     That 


84  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

of  Roman  literature,  as  to  require,  for  the  right  com- 
prehension even  of  the  scholars  of  that  day,  special 
helps  and  explanations.  The  oldest  specimens  of  Latin 
literature  that  we  have  do  not  date  farther  back  than 
200  years  before  Christ;  and  in  the  6th  century  after 
Christ,  the  Latin  became  extinct  as  the  vernacular  of 
the  people  of  Italy.  Even  English  as  it  was  300  years 
ago,  or  in  the  times  of  Shakspeare  250  years  since,  is 
very  much  of  it  unintelligible  without  a  glossary ;  and 
this,  with  aU  the  power  of  types  and  of  the  press  to 
hold  fast  the  tTiba  nTtqotvra  of  modern  speech.  Even 
in  the  time  of  its  highest  culmination  in  the  Augustan 
age,  the  Latin  of  the  provinces  was  different  from  that 
of  Rome  itself ;  as  that  of  the  rural  districts  also  was 
from  that  of  the  provincial  municipalities.  Indeed  the 
Latin  spoken  by  the  masses  was  essentially  a  different 
idiom  from  that  of  the  written  classical  Latin  of  the 
polished  Uterary  circles  of  Rome.  The  Latin  was 
brought  under  the  power  of  grammatical  and  critical 
culture,  at  a  much  later  period  than  the  Greek.  In  the 
progress  of  its  growth  it  absorbed,  in  the  south  of  Italy, 
some  Greek  idioms  and  in  the  north  some  Celtic :  re- 
solving them  into  the  elements  of  its  own  greater  en- 
largement. The  triumph  of  Roman  arms  was  followed 
always  by  the  march  of  the  Roman  language,  literature, 

is :  Ilunc  unum  plurimi  consentiunt  Romani  bonorum  optimum  fuisse 
virum. 

So  we  find  in  the  old  Latin  loidus  for  Indus,  oiti  for  uti  and  quoius 
for  cujus. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  85 

laws  and  institutions  in  their  train,  like  a  stream  of 
lava  the  flood  of  living  influences  pressed  with  irresist- 
ible force,  sweeping  every  thing  before  it,  into  Trance 
and  Spain  and  even  into  the  fastnesses  of  Germany, 
and  as  far  as  to  the  distant  shores  of  England  and 
Scandinavia  on  the  north,  and  the  Avilds  of  Sarmatia 
on  the  east :  dissolving  every  thing  in  its  way,  or,  at 
least  leaving  the  signs  of  its  fiery  force  on  the  crisped 
and  altered  forms  of  things,  wherever  it  went.  And 
yet  the  receptive,  susceptible  or  passive  side  of  Roman 
character,  was  almost  as  remarkable  as  its  aggressive. 
The  hard  and  stern  elements  of  its  genius  and  language 
were  slow  to  receive  impressions  from  without;  but 
they  were  also  equally  slow,  when  having  received,  to 
rehnquish  them.  The  Latin  accordingly  not  only 
degenerated  at  an  early  period  in  the  provinces  from  its 
pm'e  form,  but  also  ere  long  settled  down  everywhere, 
even  as  the  language  of  the  learned  in  matters  of  State, 
Science  and  the  Church,  into  what  is  called  the  Middle 
Latin.  This  phrase,  like  that  of  the  Middle  Ages 
covering  substantially  the  same  interval  of  time,  is  used 
to  mark  that  transition-period  in  which  the  spoken 
Latin,  wavering  in  form  between  its  original  pure  state 
and  the  several  dialectic  aspects  which  it  subsequently 
assumed  in  the  different  Romanic  languages,  possessed 
the  elements  of  both  the  old  and  the  new  in  combina- 
tion, without  the  determinate  preference  which  was 
afterwards  ffiven  to  the  new.     This  degenerate  form  of 


86  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

the  spoken  Ivatin  never  became  popularized,  on  the  one 
hand ;  nor  was  it  ever  wrought  into  artistic  shape,  on 
the  other,  by  scholars,  but  remained  a  heterogeneous 
compound  of  Latin,  Grseco-Roman  and  Germano-Ro- 
man  elements.  In  schools,  and  especially  cloisters, 
classical  Latin  was  still  cherished  as  a  dear  favorite  of 
the  past,  whose  voice  seemed  to  them,  like  that  of  a 
sweet  bird,  flying  down  through  the  ages  and  singing 
as  it  flew.  It  found,  like  the  sparrow,  a  nest  for  itself 
among  the  altars  of  God's  house ;  and  in  the  twelfth 
century,  its  song  was  heard  again  everywhere  in  the 
open  air,  in  the  sacred  church-hymns  of  the  times,  as 
of  a  bird  uncaged  and  at  home  once  more  in  its  native 
element,  full  of  freedom  and  of  joy. 

It  was  in  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centmies  that  the 
Latin  was,  as  a  spoken  language,  in  the  greatest  pos- 
sible state  of  ruin ;  and  it  was  the  energetic  pressure 
of  the  German  mind  from  the  north,  that  most  of  all 
broke  the  weak  ties  which  then  held  its  elements  to- 
gether. Modern  civilization  is  the  combined  result  of 
the  ideas,  institutions  and  influences,  contained  in  four 
great  providential  manifestations  of  national  life  and 
character :  the  Jewish,  Greek,  Roman  and  German ;  in 
which  category  although  the  Gennan  be  last  it  is  far 
from  least.  It  is  impossible  to  comprehend  either  the 
history  of  the  past  or  the  philosophy  of  the  present, 
without  a  full  acquaintance  with  German  history 
which,  strange  to  say,  has  been  more  neglected  in  this 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  87 

country  hitherto  than  any  other  history.  But  the 
marks  of  German  might  and  mind  he  deep  and  strong 
over  all  the  languao'es  of  southern,  as  well  as  of  north- 
ern  Europe. 

When  from  the  chaos  of  the  Middle  Ages  the  up- 
heaval of  modern  society  commenced,  and  the  present 
nations  of  Europe  began  to  exhibit  in  growing  outline 
the  general  proportions,  which  they  have  since  so  dis- 
tinctively assumed ;  the  different  Romanic  languages, 
under  the  combined  action  of  various  local  influences 
with  the  ever  present  influence  of  Rome,  came  to  be 
severally  enucleated.  These  afterwards  grcAv  up  under 
the  same  influences  in  which  they  germinated,  into 
separate  weU-defined  forms,  each  beautiful  in  its  kind, 
to  cover  with  their  different  degrees  of  upward  and  out- 
ward expansion,  as  with  a  friendly  shadow,  the  ruined 
greatness  of  their  parent  Latin  stock,  wdien  it  fell  to  lie 
forever  prostrate  under  the  hand  of  Time.  Each  of 
the  five  Romanic  dialects,  the  Italian,  WaUachian, 
Erench,  Spanish  and  Portuguese,  presents  a  different 
resemblance  to  its  mother  language,  according  to  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  the  alloy  with  which  the  Latin 
element  in  each  is  mingled.  Each  of  them  has  spe- 
cially preserved  some  separate  cardiiKil  characteristic  of 
the  old  native  stock,  which  it  has  kept  with  jealous 
care,  as  a  precious  proof  of  its  original  parentage.  The 
Italian  has  still  in  possession  its  fulness  of  form  and 
sweetness  of  tone :  the  Spanish  has  appropriated  to  it- 


88  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

self  its  majesty  and  dignity,  and  the  Portuguese  its 
soft  and  tender  strokes  and  touches  :  the  Trench,  on  the 
contrary,  best  exhibits  its  elements  of  vivacity  and  its 
practical  business-qualities,  and  therefore  like  it  abounds 
in  abbreviations  and  contractions,  and  is  full  of  martial 
fire  and  energy ;  while  the  Wallachian  has  kept  most 
of  the  old  national  disposition,  to  appropriate  and  as- 
similate extraneous  influences  and  elements  to  itself. 
Each  of  these  different  languages  has  its  different 
spoken  dialects ;  although  only  the  standard  one  in 
each  ever  shows  its  front,  in  the  sacred  precincts  of 
literature. 

Our  modern  languages  are  all,  except  the  German, 
full  of  the  most  various  mixtures.  These  mixtures  in 
the  European  languages  are  of  course  all  between  those 
of  the  same  Arian  origin ;  and  usually  indeed  languages 
of  the  ^ame  immediate  family  coalesce  more  readily, 
than  those  which  are  imrelated  or  but  distantly  related ; 
as  fruits  may  be  made  to  grow  most  readily,  when 
grafted  on  trees  that  are  homogeneous  in  the  style  of 
their  seeds.  In  the  Modern  Persian,  indeed,  we  have 
a  mixture  of  Iranian  (the  Old  Persian)  and  Semitic 
(the  Arabic) ;  while,  in  the  Turkish,  there  is  a  mixture 
of  the  Persian  and-  Arabic  with  the  orisjinal  stock  of  the 
language  itself,  involving  (and  it  is  the  only  specimen 
of  the  kind  in  the  whole  circle  of  the  languages)  a  com- 
bination of  Indo-Em'opean,  Semitic  and  Turanian  ele- 
ments in  one. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  89 

A  general  view  of  the  introduction  of  Germanic 
influences  and  elements  into  the  Romanic  languages  is 
desirable,  for  a  proper  comprehension  of  their  real  con- 
stitution, and  will,  it  is  believed,  be  more  satisfactory 
in  such  a  form  than  if  broken  up  into  separate  details, 
under  the  treatment  of  each  different  language  by  it- 
self. 

The  German  conquest  of  the  Roman  provinces  oc- 
curred in  the  coiu-se  of  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries, 
except  that  of  Wallachia,  where  Gothic  arms  had  long 
before  made  their  power  felt.  In  Italy,  in  the  middle 
of  the  fifth  century  (a.  d.  476-493),  the  brief  su- 
premacy of  the  Heruli  passed,  like  a  swift  thunder-cloud, 
over  the  country,  leaving  only  a  temporary  desolation 
in  its  track.  Then  came  the  Ostrogoths,  who  for  66 
years  (a,  r>.  494-560)  ruled  Italy  with  a  rod  of  iron  ; 
and  afterwards  for  200  years  (a.  d.  568-774)  the 
Lombards.  The  Lombardic  dialect  was,  as  is  manifest 
from  some  of  its  relics,  Old  High  German  in  the  type 
of  its  consonantal  structure.  The  Lombards  began 
their  wanderings  in  the  course  of  the  fourth  century, 
from  the  northern  shores  of  Germany  and  from  Scandi- 
navia, and,  after  many  various  adventures  with  the 
Bulgarians,  Heruli,  Gepidae,  Huns  and  Goths,  settled 
quietly  down  in  Pannonia,  whence  afterwards,  under 
Alboin  the  11th  of  their  kings  (a.  d.  568),  they 
m.arched  into  Italy  and  founded  a  kingdom,  which  en- 
dured, mitil  overthrown  by  the  Franks  under  Charle- 


90  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

magne,  and  left  behind  an  enduring  memorial  of  itself, 
in  the  name  Lombardy,  still  given  to  the  richest  por- 
tion of  northern  Italy.*  In  the  beginning  therefore 
of  the  sixth  centm:"y  a  Gothic  kingdom  was  established 
in  Italy,  as  also  in  Spain ;  and  in  Spain  the  succession 
of  Gothic  kings  became  (a.  d.  531)  elective.  As 
Spain  had  been  in  earlier  days  traversed  and  scourged 
and  conquered  in  different  parts  of  her  territory,  by  so 
many  various  races,  as  the  Celts,  Carthaginians  and 
Romans  :  so,  in  connection  with  the  great  invasion  of 
southern  Europe  from  the  north,  race  after  race  from 
the  ever-swarming  hive  of  Germany  swept  over  the 
face  of  this  then -fair  land,  eager  for  the  pleasm^es  and 
prizes  of  conquest.  In  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, we  find  the  Suevi  in  full  possession  of  Modern 
Gallicia,  Asturia,Leon  and  a  part  of  Lusitania,  as  well 
as  the  region  formerly  held  on  the  east  by  Carthaginian 
arms ;  while  in  the  south  are  the  Vandals  resting  for  a 
httle  while,  only  to  gather  strength  for  a  still  more 
vigorous  movement  onwards,  conquering  every  thing 
before  them  as  they  spread  beyond  over  the  regions  of 
northern  Afiica. '  In  the  north-east  of  Spain  lay  at  the 
same  time  the  Visigoths ;  hovering  like  a  dark  cloud, 
which,  though  appearing  to  the  rest  of  the  land  at  the 
time  as  but  a  little  fleck  of  darkness  in  the  distant 
horizon,  was  destined  ere  long  to  envelop  the  whole 
peninsula  in  its  folds  of  gloom  and  terror. 

*  Grimm's  Geschichte,  pp.  473 — 485. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  91 

The  German  irruption  into  Gaul  bore  away  every 
thing  Hke  an  overflowing  flood,  then  upon  the  soil,  ex- 
cept the  Latin  language ;  so  firmly  established  at  that 
time  over  the  people  after  so  many  centuries  of  Roman 
conquest  and  jurisdiction,  and  in  itself  so  superior  as 
the  language  of  civilization,  even  in  the  eyes  of  the 
fierce  northern  conquerors  as  well  as  of  the  conquered ; 
and  which  therefore  maintained  itself  both  in  Church 
and  State,  as  a  beacon-light  upon  a  high  firm  rock,  un- 
shaken amid  all  the  swell  of  military  commotions,  in 
its  place.  And,  as  here  in  our  own  age  the  great 
peaceful  German  immigration,  which  is  ever  flowing  in 
upon  us,  is  constantly  absorbed  and  assimilated  to  our 
common  English  type  of  language  and  of  customs  ;  so, 
in  France  slowly  but  surely  the  prevailing  numbers  and 
institutions  of  the  country  brought  about,  together 
with  the  advantages  of  a  comparatively  high  civilization 
even  in  the  hands  of  a  conquered  race,  the  final  absorp- 
tion of  the  new  German  element  although  an  invasive 
one,  into  the  grand  all-comprehending  unity  of  Roman 
life  and  law  and  language.  The  Roman  type  of  social 
fixtures  and  usages  was  such,  that  its  moulds  were  firm 
enough  Avithout,  to  receive  any  amount  of  fiery  martial 
overflow  into  them,  without  breaking  under  the  pres- 
sure, and  sharp  enough  within,  to  make  the  cooling 
mass  distinctively  of  its  o^vn  pattern.  By  the  year 
486  the  Franks  had  become  masters  of  the  greater  part 
of  Gaul.     The  first  of  the  German  tribes  who  were  con- 


92  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

verted  to  the  Chnstiaiiity  of  the  Cathohc  Church,  was 
the  Franks ;  and  it  was  by  this  simikuity  of  faith,  that 
these  German  conquerors  were  most  of  all  amalgamated 
with  the  older  inhabitants  of  the  land ;  as  tlie  develop- 
ment indeed  of  the  new  European  nations,  generally,  was 
effected  everywhere  in  the  same  way.*  In  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifth  centuiy,  the  south-western  part  of 
Gaul  was  in  the  possession  of  the  Visigoths  :  the  south- 
eastern part,  of  the  Bm-gundians  and  the  northern  of 
the  Franks  :  aU  Germanic  tribes.  Over  the  slow  deli- 
quescence of  the  German  from  its  new  home  on  Gallic 
soil  and  its  final  disappearance  there,  a  veil  of  historic 
darkness  rests,  which  has  at  least  the  advantage  of 
hiding  from  modern  eyes  the  offensive  process  of  its  disso- 
lution. But  "  the  position  is  hot  too  bold,"  says  Diez,t 
"  that  the  German  continued  to  be  used  in  France,  up  to 
the  division  of  the  Carolingian  kingdom  (a.  d.  840) ; 
and  in  the  north,  taking  the  song  of  victory  of  King 
Louis  III.  over  the  Normans  (881)  as  a  voucher,  up  to 
the  end  of  the  ninth  century :  which  would  make  the 
time  of  its  dm'ation  in  Gaul  from  four  to  five  hundred 
years." 

Long  after  the  German  conquest  the  Byzantine 
armies  tramped,  from  time  to  time,  over  lower  Italy 
and  Sicily  and  southern  Spain ;  and  yet  no  consider- 
able mixture  of  people  of  different  blood  occurred  in 
such  a  way. 

*  Gieseler's  Ecc.  Hist.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  131 — 3. 
t  Diez'  Grammatik,  p.  03. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  93 

The  composition  accordingly  of  the  Romanic  tongues 
is  one,  formed  in  the  main  of  these  staple  elements : 
Classical  or  Pm.'e  Latin,  Middle  Latin,  Graeco-Romanic 
and  Germano-Romanic  words. 

The  Middle  or  corrupted  Latin  is,  like  the  original 
or  proper  Latin  itself,  a  very  large  element  of  all  the 
Romanic  languages.  This  was  the  common  spoken 
dialect  or  patois,  out  of  whose  elements  as  their  bases, 
those  forms  which  arose  in  the  times  of  Charlemagne 
and  afterwards  were  generated.  The  great  mass  also 
of  common  unclassical  Latm,  existing  in  the  language 
before  the  age  of  the  IMiddle  Latin,  has  a  representa- 
tion of  itself,  and  that  not  inconsiderable,  among  these 
languages.  Many  of  the  forms  also  ranked  under  the 
Middle  Latin,  were  but  mere  contractions  of  fuller 
classical  or  Greek  forms  of  words :  as  cosinus  (French 
and  English  cousin)  of  consobrinus ;  and  colpus  (Ital. 
colpo,  French  coup)  of  xolacfoq, ;  while  not  a  few  of 
the  remainder  were  simply  Latinized  forms  of  words 
adopted  from  other  languages,  or  forced  into  the  speech 
of  the  Romanic  races,  by  the  busy  or  rough  contact  of 
the  surrounding  nations  with  them. 

Great  care  is  needed,  in  tracing  Byzantine- Greek 
originals  in  the  Middle  Latin.  Appearances  of  resem- 
blance occur,  at  times,  which  are  but  appearances  and 
entirely  fortuitous ;  and  as  Latin  and  Greek  were  pri- 
marily of  one  immediate  united  origin,  words  even  at 
so  late  a  period  may  seem  many  of  them  to  have  been 


94 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 


borrowed,  wliicli  yet  are  as  nmcli  vernacular  to  the  one, 
as  to  the  other.  Like  the  principles  of  the  common 
law,  living  of  themselves  unwatched  and  growing  fresh 
and  strong,  without  any  of  the  trellises  of  statutory 
regulation  or  recognition  to  support  them,  beneath  and 
around  all  the  formalities  of  special  legislation :  so  these 
words,  never  having  shown  themselves  before  on  the 
high  points  of  hterary  demonstration,  may  have  yet 
kept,  on  the  plane  of  thought  and  feeling  lying  be- 
low it,  a  fresh  green  life  perpetually  of  their  own.  It 
is  as  true  in  etymological  and  ethnographic  relations, 
as  in  other  things,  that  "  fools  rush  in  where  angels 
dare  not  tread."* 


*  Specimens  of  the  different  classes  of  elements  to  be  found  in  the 

Romanic  languages  besides  pure  Latin : 

I.  Of  ante-mediasval  unci 

assical  Lat; 

in. 

Latin. 

Italian. 

Spanish. 

French. 

English. 

badius,  brown 

bajo 

bayo 

bai 

bay 

Bassus,  Prop,  name, 

Of. 
3aOC?,  Comp.  Patrauv. 

[•  basso 

bas 

base 

beber,  for  fiber 

bevero 

bibaro 

bi&vre 

beaver 
'  cavalry 

cabaUus,  a  nag 
capulum,  a  rope 

cavallo 
cappio 

caballo 
cable 

cheval 
c4ble 

cavalier 
j  chevalier 
(^chivalry 

cable 

camisia,  a  shirt 

camicia 

camisa 

chemise 

chemise 

cambiare,  to  exchange 

cangiare 

cambiar 

changer 

change 

confortare  (con-fortis) 

confortare 

conhortar 

conforter 

comfort 

carricare,  to  load 

carcarc 

cargar 

charger 

(  charge 
I  cargo 

gabalum,  a  cross 

gable 

gable 

grossus,  thick 

grosso 

grueso 

gros 

gross 

pretiare,  to  put  a  price  on  prezzare 

preciar 

priser 

prize 

Sapius,  wise,  for  Sapiens 

saggio 

sabio 

sage 

sage 

THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES. 


95 


Btruppus,  a  band 
unio  (fro)n  unus) 
vidulus,  a  knapsack 


stroppolo 

unione 

vulioria 


estrovo 


etropo  strap 

oignon  onion 

valise  valise 


II.  Of  Grseco-Eomanic  elements  ; 


Greek.        Latin. 


Italian.         Spanish, 
biasimare 


Pvpaa, 
a  skin 


rrvpyos 

a  flexure 


>  bursa 


burgus 


bolsa 


burero 


bors 

borgo 
lonza 


,  ( lamba  ) 

ffamba      A-i  ]■ 

°  ( jamon  ) 


,,    ^         (  colaplius     and  )     , 


petium  pezzo 

{spatlia,    a   broad  )         , 
tool  or  sword.     J  ' " 
spathula,    shoul-  )       ,, 
der  blade.  f  ^P''^^'' 


golpe 
pieza 
espada 
espalda 


rapaPoh'i      parabola 

(Tiivpi;,  emery 
Tpv(pav,  to  bore 

rS^of,  smoke 

f  trica  and 
9pi^,  hair  ■<  terza,  plait- 
(  edhair. 


parola  palabra 


French. 
bUmer 

bourse 

bourg 

once 

jambe 

coup 

piSce 
epee 
epaule 

j  parole 
(  parler 


English, 
blame 

^bourse 
■<  dis  6  wrse 
(purse 

(  burgh 
/  burgess 


( jamb 
I  ham 


piece 

spade 

epaulet 

r  parable 
I  palaver 
I  parole 
(^  parlance 


smeriglio 
trapan 

tufo 
treccia 


German, 
bauen,  to  build. 
Old  German, 
Buisc,  build- 
ing material. 

brennen,  to  burn 

Harinc,  a  cor-~> 
ruption  of  Lat,  >• 
halec.  ) 

Hriiig  and  ring,") 
a  circle  for  > 
fighting.         ) 


III.  Of  Germano-Komanic 

Italian. 


Middle  Latin. 

1 

!  boscus,  a   )  , 

r   ^r^^.i        f  hosco 


wood 


esmeril 
trepanar 

tufo 
tresse 

elements ; 

Spanish. 

bosque 


emeri 

trepaner 

etoufFer 
to  suffocate 


j  etoufFer        ) 
l  to  suffocate  f 


emery- 
trepan 

tufa 

(tresses 
(trick 


brunus      ") 
brown, lit.  >  br 
scorched.  ) 


uno       bronce 


annga      arenque 


(  aringo 
(aringa 


French, 
bois 

brun 
hareno- 


English. 

!  bosky 
bush 
am6us^    *■ 


I  brown 
I  bronze 

herrino; 


harangue         harangue 


96  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

Of  Germane-Romanic  elements  in  these  languages, 
•there  are  two  kinds  of  quite  different  chronological  fea- 
tures. The  first  of  these,  as  they  were  imported  into 
these  languages  at  the  time  of  the  first  German  immi- 
gration into  the  Provinces,  are  marked  by  the  greater 
prevalence  of  the  original  a  and  i  vowels  in  their  forms, 
instead  of  the  later  introduced  e,  and  the  diphthong  ai 
instead  of  ei,  as  well  as  the  consonants  p,  t,  and  d  for 
f,  z  and  t.  The  second  class  of  Germano-Romanic  ele- 
ments has  on  it  the  special  mark,  which  the  Germans 
call  Lautverschiebung,  or  a  mutation  of  the  radical  con- 
sonant or  consonants ;  which  is  one  of  the  great  peculiari- 
ties of  the  Gothic  languages,  and  which  first  became 
an  established  fact  in  them  in  the  sixth  century  :  so  that 
this  class  of  words  must  have  been  introduced  into  the 
Romanic  languages  after  this  time.  In  the  Erench  a 
third  class  also,  German  words,  called  Danish  by  the 
writers  of  the  day,  came  in  from  the  Normans  in  the 
north-western  part  of  Prance.  They  readily  amalgamated 
with  the  people  of  the  land,  and,  so,  gradually  relin- 
quished their  own  language  for  theirs,  although  depos- 
iting in  it  also  many  of  their  own  words,  especially 
those  pertaining  to  maritime  life. 

German  influence  was  felt,  only  on  the  lexical  *  and 
not  at  all  on  the  grammatical  features,  of  the  Romanic 

*  Diez  finds  in  the  different  Romanic  languages  about  930  pure 
German  roots,  some  still  alive  in  them,  and  some  obsolete,  independ- 
ently of  unnumbered  derivatives  and  compounds  ;  of  which  450  occur 
in  French;  140,  not  occurring  elsewhere,  in  Italian;  and  somewhat 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  97 

languages,  which  are  of  a  firm,  unimpaired  Latin  struc- 
ture. 

But  each  of  the  Komanic  languages  requires  a  sep- 
arate consideration. 

(1.)  The  Itahan. 

By  far  the  great  majority  of  all  its  words,  to  at  least 
nine  parts  out  of  ten,  are  Latin.  Of  the  Greek  ele- 
ments, which  constitute  a  considerable  portion  of  its 
remaining  vocabulary,  many  must  have  doubtless  come 
into  it  throuQ-h  the  Latin.  Li  the  Sicilian  and  Sardin- 
ian  dialects,  where  words  of  this  natm^e  most  abound, 
it  would  seem  probable  that  many  of  them  must  be  the 
remains  of  that  early  contact  with  Greece,  that  grew 
out  of  theu  original  colonial  relations  to  that  land. 

The  Italian  since  the  second  half  of  the  twelfth 
century,  when  it  first  became  enthroned  in  a  perma- 
nent literature  of  its  own,  has  changed  but  little ;  far 
less  indeed  than  any  of  its  sister  languages.  It  is  alto- 
gether in  itself  the  purest  specimen  of  the  old  common 
stock,  and  has  spread  out  its  boughs  beyond  the  limits 
of  its  own  native  sphere,  into  the  Tyrol  and  even  into 
Illyria.  It  was  at  first  called  common  Latin,  afterward 
Sicilian  and  then  Tuscan,  and  seems  to  have  come  into 
use  by  the  cultivated  classes  in  its  present  distinct  form 
by  the  end  of  the  tenth  centmy.  Its  phonetic  phe- 
nomena are  remarkable,  as  are  those  even  of  the  differ- 
more  than  50  each,  in  the  Provencal  Spanish  and  Portuguese  lan- 
guages ;  while  in  the  Wallachian  there  are  less  than  anywhere  else. 


98  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

ent  dialects  compared  with  eacli  other.  The  depart- 
ment of  phonology  is  in  fact  quite  as  full  of  wonders, 
in  the  modern  languages  as  in  the  ancient.  Italian 
literature  is  of  broad  and  high  dimensions.  In  it  are 
hung  up  as  in  a  temple,  the  votive  offerings  of  many 
poets,  philosophers  and  scholars :  offerings,  which, 
though  made  in  the  midst  of  smoking  incense  and  of 
holy  water,  have  but  few  of  them  any  of  that  fragrance 
of  holy  feeling  and  purpose,  vdth  which  so  much  of 
Enoflish  and  American  literatm^e  is  sweet-scented. 

In  respect  to  the  different  dialects  of  the  Italian, 
the  Lombard,  the  Genoese,  the  Florentine,  whose  form 
of  speech  constitutes  the  standard  of  taste,  the  Neapoli- 
tan, the  Sicilian,  the  Sardinian  and  the  Corsican,  each 
carries  a  distinct  badge  of  his  nativity  upon  him,  in  the 
different  tone  or  form  or  spirit  of  his  speech.  Lan- 
guage is  too  impressible  to  all  the  influences  of  every 
kind  which  separate  men  not  only  into  various  nations, 
but,  also  on  every  extended  area,  into  different  sections 
of  the  same  nation,  and  which  mark  off  the  historic  life 
of  the  same  community  into  successive  periods  of 
growth,  maturity  and  decline ;  to  preserve  for  any 
great  length  of  time  or  space,  one  unaltered,  petrified, 
Egyptian  style  of  form  or  features.  It  can  no  more  be 
cribbed  and  confined  in  any  one  direction,  however  free 
and  fuU,  than  humanity  itself,  whose  utterance  it  is  and 
which  is  ever  sweUing  with  vital  forces,  strugghng  for  a 
newer  and  larger  expression  of  themselves. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  99 

(2.)  The  WaUachian. 

This  descendant  of  the  ohl  Latin  has  been,  almost 
wholly,  made  known  to  European  scholars  since  the  re- 
cent war  at  Sebastopol.  The  people  call  themselves 
Romani  and  their  language  Romania.  The  region  over 
which  it  spreads,  consists  of  Wallachia,  Moldavia  and 
parts  of  Hungary,  Transylvania  and  Thrace,  or,  in 
other  words,  both  banks  of  the  lower  part  of  the  Danube ; 
and  it  is  spoken  by  more  than  three  millions  of  people. 
It  is  in  its  grammatical  constitution  more  like  the  Ital- 
ian than  any  of  the  sister  languages.  It  is  accordingly 
easy  of  acquisition  in  this  direction ;  but,  in  respect  to 
its  lexical  elements,  it  is  not  so  readily  mastered ;  as  it 
contains  large  mixtures  of  Slavonic  elements,  forced 
into  it  by  the  pressure  of  so  many  languages  of  this 
class  lying  around  it  on  every  side.  They  have  also 
adopted  from  them  the  Cyrillic  alphabet.  The  Wal- 
lachians  proper  number  now  not  far  from  a  million 
souls.  Like  the  Albanians  and  Bulgarians,  they  put 
the  article  after  the  noun.  They  use  also,  like  the 
French,  in  the  formation  of  different  tenses,  auxiliary 
verbs  nuich  more  than  did  the  Latin.  The  old  lUyrian  ap- 
pears often  also  in  broken  fragments,  in  the  Wallachian, 
and  only  in  such  a  form ;  as  it  does  likewise  in  the  Al- 
banian. The  Danube  divides  the  Wallachian  into  two 
principal  dialects,  northern  and  southern  or  Daco-Ro- 
man  and  Macedo-Roman.  The  northern  is  more  pm'e, 
although  having  more  Slavonic  mixtures  with  it ;  and 


100  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

it  is  more  cultivated  than  the  southern,  which  has  been 
overlaid  with  much  foreign  material,  especially  Alba- 
nian and  Grecian.  Many  words  also  from  various  lan- 
guages have,  under  the  pressure  of  past  conflicts  as  well 
as  social  and  commercial  contact  with  neighboring  na- 
tions, become  incorporated  into  the  fabric  of  the  lan- 
guage, so  as  to  form  a  penuanent  part  of  its  tissue ; 
and  many  are  the  Slavic,  Albanian,  Greek,  German, 
Hungarian  and  Turkish  words  that,  like  strange  birds, 
sit  and  sing  now  in  this  language,  in  boughs  out  of 
which  they  have  driven  forever  the  native  inhabitants  of 
the  wood. 

The  Wallachian  took  its  rise,  as  one  of  the  Romanic 
dialects,  definitively  in  the  Roman  colonies  sent  into 
Dacia  by  Trajan,  who  made  Dacia  (107  b.  c.)  a  Roman 
province.  The  original  population  of  Dacia  was  of 
Thracian  origin  :  the  inhabitants  of  eastern  Dacia  being 
•  Getae  and  those  of  the  West  being  Dacians  proper.  In 
the  Wallachian  the  Latin  greatly  preponderates,  while 
the  old  Illyrian  still  preserves  a  foothold  in  it,  remind- 
ing us  in  these  modern  times  that  there  it  once  dwelt ; 
although  its  fires  are  now  all  quenched  and  its  ancient 
walls  destroyed.  Wallachian,  or  Daco-Romanic  litera- 
ture began  its  distinct  career  in  the  year  1580  ;  and, 
since  that  day,  poetical  and  scientific  works  have  ap- 
peared from  time  to  time,  although  not  in  great  abun- 
dance.   The  mass  of  its  literature  is  of  a  rehgious  kind. 

(3.)  The  Spanish. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  101 

The  original  inhabitants  of  Spain  were  Iberians, 
probably  a  very  early  offshoot  of  the  ancient  Celtic 
population  of  Europe.  Pictet*  regards  Iberia,  and 
with  good  reason,  as  like  Hibernia  a  compound  of 
Ibh  the  land  and  Er,  of  the  Erins  or  Arii ;  on  which 
supposition,  two  marked  instances  occur  in  the  West 
of  the  continued  retention  of  the  old  family-name  of 
this  great  class  of  languages.  When  afterwards  sub- 
sequent generations  of  Celts  came,  in  their  separate 
historic  character,  as  such,  to  be  commingled  Avith  the 
descendants  of  those  first  settlers,  they  received  from 
the  Romans  the  name  of  Celtiberians.  Phoenicians 
and  Carthaginians  very  early  settled  on  the  coast,  and, 
by  ever  fresh  additions  of  men  and  resources,  obtained 
ere  long  the  supremacy  of  the  land.  After  dispossess- 
ing them  and  conquering  the  fierce,  obstinacy  of  the 
natives,  the  Romans  seized  upon  Spain  as  their  own 
possession  (133  b.  c),  and  held  it  as  such  for  600 
years,  until  the  Vandals  and  the  Huns  wrested  it  from 
the  grasp  of  their  effeminate  descendants ;  who  them- 
selves also  afterwards  were  compelled  to  give  up  this 
same  tempting  prize  into  the  hands  of  the  ]\Ioors. 
The  Vandal  or  German  invasion  occurred  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  5th  century  ;  and  in  the  beginning  of  the 
8th  the  Arabic  ;  while,  during  the  interval  between 
them,  the  authority  of  Byzantium  was  acknowledged 
throughout  the  line  of  its  seaward  coast  in  the  South. 

*  Kuhn's  Beitriige  zur  Sprachforschung,  pp.  94 — 5. 
8 


102  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

And  what  a  mixture  of  elements,  for  growth  and 
greatness,  is  here  !  So.  much  more  energetic  however 
was  the  influence  of  the  Latin  element  than  that  of 
the  others,  that,  except  in  phonetic  and  logical  rela- 
tions, it  moulded  the  whole  language  into  conformity 
with  its  own  spirit  and  type.  The  structure  of  the 
language  and  its  accentuation  are  thorouglily  Roman- 
ic, as  is  also  the  larger  part  of  its  lexical  elements. 

In  the  north  of  Spain  there  still  lives,  like  a  wild 
bird  that  has  wandered  away  from  the  rest  of  its  spe- 
cies, undisturbed  among  the  recesses  of  the  mountains, 
a  strange  language,  the  Basque,  that  has  come  down 
from  an  elder  age  and  remained  unmixed  with  the  dia- 
lects that  surround  it.  This  Humboldt  regards  as  the 
remains  of  the  original  tongue  of  Spain,  which,  chased 
away  from  the  open  fields  and  streams  of  the  land  by 
Phoenician  and  Roman  arms,  found  at  last  a  safe  re- 
treat for  itself  in  fastnesses  too  deep  and  high  to  tempt 
their  pursuit.  Its  present  home  embraces  the  prov- 
inces of  Biscaya,  Guipuzcoa,  Alava  and  a  part  of  Na- 
varra.  Among  the  sisterhood  of  the  Spanish  dialects,* 
the  Castilian  sits  queen,  and  has  its  local  habitation  in 
the  very  centre  of  Spain  embracing  the  provinces  of 
Leon,  Estramadura,  Andalusia,  Aragon,  most  of  Na- 

*  Diez  quotes  Sarniiento's  analysis  of  the  constituent  elements  of 
Spanish  to  be  as  follows :  Six-tenths  Latin :  one-tenth  ecclesiastical 
and  Greek:  one-tenth  npri;hern  or  German :  one-tenth  Oriental  and 
one-tenth  made  up  of  American,  modern  German,  French  and  Italian. 
— Die^  Grammatilc,  2d  ed.,  p.  95. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  103 

varra,  Rioja  and  Murcia.  The  Catalonian  and  Gali- 
cian  dialects  which  are  next  in  vakie,  are  intermixed 
largely  with  elements  serving  to  alloy  their  pnrity  :  the 
former  with  those  of  the  dialect  of  Provence  in  France, 
and  the  latter  with  the  neighboring  Portugnese. 

In  its  forms  of  declension,  the  Spanish  is  more  like 
the  Latin  than  is  the  Italian ;  but  less  like  it  in  the 
sound  or  sense  of  its  derivatives.  It  was  about  the 
middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  that  Spanish  literature 
began  its  distinct  career,  and  with  it  that  the  Spanish 
language  assumed  a  fixed  form :  although  it  was  not 
until  three  centuries  afterwards,  that  scholars  began  to 
elaborate  the  language  as  such.  Its  vocabulary  is  very 
largely  interspersed  with  foreign  elements,  especially 
Arabic.  By  her  very  position,  so  near  to  northern 
Africa,  where  Phoenician  Carthage  dwelt  of  old  in  the 
pride  of  her  power  and  delighted  to  make  her  a  prey, 
and  whence  afterwards  the  Moor  trampled  with  furious 
energy  upon  all  her  growing  greatness :  Spain  was 
through  all  the  formative  part  of  her-  history  held  in 
subjection  to  the  influence  of  Semitic*  arms,  languages 

*  The  stock  of  the  present  population  of  North  Africa  is  well  de- 
scribed by  Barth,  vol.  i.,  p.  195.  "They  all."  he  says,  '"aiipcar  to 
have  been  originally  a  race  of  the  Semitic  stock  ;  but,  by  intermai-riage 
with  tribes  which  came  from  Egypt  or  by  way  of  it,  to  have  received  a 
certain  admixture.  Hence  came  several  distinct  tribes  designated  an- 
ciently as  Libj'ans,  IMoors,  Numidians,  Libyphocnieians,  Getulians  and 
others,  and  traced  by  the  native  historians  to  two  different  families, 
the  Berimes  and  the  Abtar,  who  however  diverge  from  one  common 
source,  ^lazigh   or  ]\Iadaghs.     This  native  wide-spread  African  race, 


104  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

and  institutions,  beyond  any  other  nation  in  Europe. 
The  two  languages,  with  which  it  thus  came  into  close 
mechanical,  if  not  chemical,  combination  for  centuries, 
were  the  Phoenician  or  Hebrew,  the  noblest  of  the 
ancient  tongues  of  that  family,  and  the  Arabic  the 
noblest  of  the  new.  Its  technical  terminology  is  par- 
ticularly rich  in  words  of  Arabic  origin.  Spanish  lit- 
erature is  specially  distinguished  by  two  marked  fea- 
tures :  first  the  general  ballad  form  of  its  poetry,  and 
secondly  the  abounding  prevalence  of  tales  of  chivalry 
and  knight  errantry.  If  ever  the  Ijyric  Muse  had  a 
home  that  she  specially  loved,  next  after  Jerusalem 
when  David  filled  it  with  the  music  of  his  harp,  whose 
echoes  have  ever  since  filled  the  world  beside,  and 
Lesbos,  where  Sappho  sang  in  her  heathen  home  of 
earthly  loves,  like  a  songster  that  had  wandered  from 
her  native  skies  and  lost  her  tune  though  not  her  voice  ; 
it  was  in  old  Castile.  Her  strains  were  at  first  simple, 
tender  and  melting,  but,  after  Arabic  blood  had  mingled 
its  fire  with  the .  Spanish,  she  became  more  bold  and 
brilliant  in  her  eye  and  mien.  Under  the  influence  of 
Moorish  energy  and  daring  it  was,  that  the  romantic 
literature  of  Spain  sprang  into  being.  In  no  other  lan- 
guage of  Europe,  except  the  German  which  is  full  of 
the  balm  and  bloom  of  the  luxuriant  East,  is  there  such 

cither  from  the  name  of  their  supposed  ancestor  Ber,  which  we  recog- 
nize in  the  name  Afer,  or,  in  consequence  of  the  Roman  name  barbari, 
has  been  generally  called  Berbei-,  and  in  some  regions  Shawi  and 
Shelluh." 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  105 

an  Oriental  richness  of  coloring,  as  in  the  Spanish.  In 
the  language  of  Schlegel,  "  Castilian  poetry  incorporated 
into  itself  foreign  forms  and  borrowed  charms,  combin- 
ing the  most  various  Romantic  dialects,  until  its  glowing 
and  fanciful  creations  at  length  expanded,  like  flowers 
of  perfect  brilliancy  clad  in  every  hue."  In  the  fifth 
century  the  Vandals  poured  like  a  torrent  through  its 
rich  valleys :  in  the  sixth  and  seventh,  Byzantium 
stretched  its  sway  over  its  southern  borders ;  and  in  the 
eighth  the  Arab  held  Spain,  like  an  eagle,  gasping  for 
life  in  his  talons.  It  w^as  in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century  that  the  great  national  Epic  of  the  Cid  ap- 
peared. 

(4.)  The  Portuguese. 

This  language  is  in  its  structure  of  great  beauty. 
It  was  modified  from  the  simple  Latin  original,  much 
more  than  either  of  the  other  Romanic  languages,  by 
the  Provencal  dialect ;  and  is  regarded  by  those  ac- 
quainted Avith  it  as  the  flower  of  all  those  dialects :  com- 
bining, as  it  does,  in  a  most  w^onderful  manner,  both 
simplicity  and  sweetness  with  high  artistic  finish  of  con- 
struction. And  here  let  us  listen  ao-ain  to  SchleQ-el's 
glowing  words :  "In  its  power  of  expressing  tender 
feeling,  it  surpasses  every  other  language.  It  is  also 
singularly  rich  in  appropriate  words,  the  very  tone  of 
which,  independently  of  their  beautifid  signification, 
seems  to  melt  at  once  into  the  soul.  Even  the  soft 
Italian  appears  rough  in  comparison  mth  the  Portu- 


106  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

guese ;  and  the  Spanish  stern  and  northern.  It  is  by 
far  the  most  simple  of  all  the  Provencal  and  Romantic 
dialects,  yet  inferior  to  none  in  highly  artistic  construc- 
tion. The  prose  is  simple,  rich  and  laconic,  yet  with- 
out the  slightest  constraint ;  indeed,  in  every  kind  of 
style,  ease  and  grace  appear  to  be  with  that  nation 
natural  qualities."  Unfortunately  we  are  as  ignorant 
of  its  literature,  as  of  that  of  Holland :  having  scarcely 
one  author  within  our  reach,  except  the  noble  Camoens  ; 
in  whose  Lusiad,  a  great  national  epic  poem,  we  find 
ourselves  equally  lost  in  joy  and  sorrow,  as  we  converse 
in  it  with  the  poet  and  with  Portugal :  in  joy  at  the 
splendor  of  his  genius,  and  in  sorrow  that  this  beauti- 
ful production,  like  the  last  song  of  the  dying  Swan, 
though  almost  too  sweet  for  earth,  was  but  the  prelude 
to  the  downfall  of  his  country  in  the  loss  of  India. 
Suddenly,  like  a  star  deserting  all  at  once  the  bright 
sisterhood  of  planets  in  which  it  had  before  moved  and 
shone,  it  wandered  away  from  its  place  among  the  lead- 
ing nations  of  the  world ;  and  is  now  remembered,  only 
as  having  once  had  a  lustre  which  it  possesses  no 
more. 

Such  phonetic  discordances  occur  in  the  vowel  and 
diphthongal  combinations  and  derivations  of  the  Span- 
ish and  Portuguese  languages,  as  quite  place  them  in 
respect  to  many  points,  at  antipodes  to  each  other.  The 
Portuguese  has  far  less  Basque  in  it,  than  the  Spanish ; 
and  has  adhered  much  more  constantly  to  its  own  orig- 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  107 

inal  antique  modes  and  degrees  of  development.  It  is 
accordingly  an  independent  slioot  of  itself  from  the 
roots  of  that  vigorous  old  mother-tongue  of  Rome, 
which  succeeded  in  spreading  itself  over  all  Western 
Europe ;  and  which,  wherever  it  spread,  was  sure  to 
exclude  every  thing  that  it  could  not  assimilate  to  it- 
self from  the  soil.  It  has  in  its  composition  a  mani- 
fest mixture  of  French  elements,  brought  in  by  Henry, 
Count  of  Burgundy  and  his  numerous  Court-retinue. 

(5.)  The  dialect  of  Provence. 

This  was  the  language  of  the  old  Troubadours,  and 
occupied  a  sort  of  middle  ground  between  the  other 
dialects,  and  was  greatly  modified  and  moulded  by  them 
all.  Those  poetical  musicians  of  the  Middle  Ages  spent 
their  time  in  wandering  about  from  court  to  court  in 
France  and  on  the  continent ;  and,  having  no  one  place 
in  which  they  might  congregate  and  build  up  a  lasting 
literature  for  themselves  and  for  the  world,  they  left 
behind  them  no  written  records  of  their  own.  Fortu- 
nately the  airy  spirit  of  this  language,  supposed  but  a 
little  while  ago  to  have  been  for  ever  exhaled  from  this 
world,  has  recently  been  found,*  lingering  spell-bound, 
although  unvisited  and  unknown  for  many  long  centu- 

*  It  is  announced  also  by  F.  Diimmler,  of  Berlin,  that  he  has  pub- 
lished of  late  oOO  Troubadour  poems  in  the  Provencal  dialect,  edited 
by  Dr.  C.  A.  F.  Mahn  ;  gathered,  most  of  them  for  the  first  time,  out 
of  seven  ancient  manuscripts  from  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris,  and  four 
old  English  ones,  wliich  by  a  conjunction  of  fortunate  circumstances 
have  just  come  to  light  and  into  his  hands. 


108  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

lies  in  tlie  very  words  and  letters,  wliicli  those  old  min- 
strels' used  and  loved.  As  for  itself  it  spread  out  like 
a  vine  of  strong  growth,  throughout  the  southern 
part  of  France  and  beyond  its  native  French  limits,  into 
all  the  neighboring  parts  of  Italy  and  Spain.  It  was 
in  the  eleventh  century,  that  the  Troubadoiu:  poetry 
reached  the  acme  of  its  excellence,  scattering  its  fra- 
grance for  many  years  afterwards  over  all  Europe. 
And  even  if  the  language  had  been  obliterated  from 
the  records  of  the  past,  as  was  once  supposed,  its  name 
and  its  influence  would  still  have  sui'vived,  having 
passed  by  a  true  transmigration  in  the  style  and  name 
of  that  department  of  literature,  called  Romance,  into 
aU  the  languages  of  the  civilized  world. 

The  Provencal  dialect  spread,  in  France,  over  Gas- 
cony,  Provence,  Limousin,  Auvergne  and  Viennois,  and 
in  the  regions  of  Northern  Italy  over  Savoy  and  a  small 
part  of  Switzerland,  as  Lausanne  and  the  Southern  part 
of  Valais.  Specimens  of  the  Provencal  dialect  are  found 
of  as  ancient  a  date  as  the  year  960 ;  but  they  are  only 
single  sentences  occurring  in  old  Latin  records.  The 
song  of  Boethius,  a  fragment  of  more  than  two  hun- 
dred stanzas,  preseiTcd  in  a  manuscript  of  the  eleventh 
centmy,  although  written  probably  half  a  century  be- 
fore, is  to  be  foimd  among  lleynouard's  collections 
with  some  smaller  pieces  of  the  same  date. 

(G.)  The  French  language. 

This  is  in  many  respects  the  finest  reproduction 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  109 

of  the  original  Latin,  that  we  find  among  the  modern 
languages.  It  has  a  much  smaller  mixture  of  other 
elements  in  it  than  the  Spanish,  and  nuicli  more  tlian 
the  Italian.  The  French  character  is  not  indeed  as 
strongly  representative  as  is  the  language,  in  its  spirit, 
of  its  Roman  original.  The  French  mind  has  naturally 
the  love  of  martial  activity  and  pomp,  as  well  as  the 
instinct  for  organization  and  centralization,  that  charac- 
terized the  Roman ;  but  it  has,  with  these  tendencies 
also,  under  its  more  favorable  atmosphere,  and  sur- 
rounded by  its  more  enchanting"  landscapes,  an  in- 
clination to  art  and  a  sense  of  the  beautiful,  as  well  as 
an  elastic  vivacious  style  of  social  character,  that  are 
rather  Grecian  than  Roman  in  their  type.  Gaul, 
originally  settled  by  the  Celts,  afterwards  conquered 
by  the  Romans,  fell  in  the  end  into  the  hands  of  the 
Franks,!  a  tribe  of  Germans ;  and  was  continuously 
Romanized,  from  the  time  of  Caesar  who  first  con- 
quered it,  all  along  the  track  of  the  successive  dynasties 
of  Rome  or  for  Rome,  civil  and  spiritual,  that  held 
their  sway  over  it.     The  southern  part  of  it,  occupied 

*  In  the  language  of  Ruskin  :  "  Of  all  countries  for  educating  an 
artist  to  the  perception  of  grace,  Fi'ance  beai"s  the  bell ;  in  even  those 
districts  of  which  country,  that  are  rcgai'ded  as  most  uninteresting, 
there  is  not  a  single  valley,  but  is  full  of  the  most  lively  pictures." — 
Modern  Painters^  Vol.  i.,  p.  126. 

t  In  their  very  name  Franks,  we  see  that  they  were  distinguished 
by  their  love  of  freedom  and  the  openness  of  their  character  and  con- 
duct, as  a  strong  conquering  race  conscious  of  their  own  power  and 
virtue,  from  the  feeble  Celts  and  degenerate  Romans  whom  they  had 
overcome. 


110  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

at  first  by  the  Basques,  still  retains  its  memorial  of 
that  fact  in  the  very  name  Gascony*  applied  to  it, 
which  means  literally  the  land  of  the  Basques,  In 
this  region,  and  that  of  Low  Brittany,  the  influence  of 
Rome  was  least  felt  upon  the  people  and  their  language. 
The  original  dialects  of  the  French  were  many.  In 
those  of  Southern  France,  bordering  on  Italy,  the  old 
Latin  vowel-sounds  were  preserved  full  and  pure.  In 
Northern  France  they  were  changed  like  the  con- 
sonants, and  rejected  to  such  a  degree  as  to  depart  far 
from  their  first  Latin  type.  Compared  with  the 
Spanish  and  Italian,  the  French  has  in  it  less  Latin 
and  more  German. 

The  determinate  amount  of  all  its  elements,  it  is 
difficult  to  decide.  Of  the  Gallic  words  preserved  to 
us  as  such  in  the  old  classical  authors,  a  large  number 
are  still  found  clearly  preserved  in  either  the  new  or  old 
French.  The  Old  French,  of  which  we  have  but  few- 
remains,  is  chiefly  allied  to  the  Gothic,  but  less  in  its 
vowel-system  than  its  consonantal,  which  is  much  akin  to 
the  Old  Saxon,  although  after  the  Carohngian  f  period 
it  inclined  more  towards  the  High  German.     Having 

*  The  interchange  of  g,  in  both  Low  and  Middle  Latin  and  the 
French,  with  b.  v  and  w  in  German  and  English,  is  worthy  of  notice, 
as  in  Latin,  Gulielmusj  French,  Guillaume;  German,  Wilhelm  ;  Eng- 
lish, William.  So  compare  also  French  garder  and  English  guard  and 
ward,  guardian  and  warden;  also  Latin  vastare,  French  gater  (for 
original  gaster),  English  waste,  vast  and  devastate,  as  also  French 
guerre  and  English  war. 

\  Or,  Carlovingiau. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  Ill 

no  monuments  left  now  of  those  early  Germanic 
dialects,  the  Lomhardian,  Burgundian  and  Suevian, 
and  scarcely  any  of  the  French,  it  is  hard  to  trace 
with  distinctness  the  action  or  presence,  to  any  high 
degree,  of  each  or  any  of  the  Germano-Romanic  ele- 
ments that  came  into  the  French  behind  the  Gothic, 
or  even  in  parallel  streams  with  it.* 

There  are  in  Trench  some  four  hundred  and  fifty 
root-words,  with  many  derivatives  and  compound 
words,  some  now  living  in  the  language  and  some 
obsolete,  of  direct  German  origin.  The  southern  part 
of  France  not  being  overrun  by  the  Norman  invasion, 
lost  all  that  class  of  words  introduced  into  the  north, 
and  was  therefore  less  Germanized.  It  has  spread  out 
its  boughs  beyond  its  OAvn  limits,  over  Belgium  and  a 
considerable  part  of  Switzerland ;  while,  in  connection 
with  the  Norman  Conquest,  it  has  much  modified  the 
English,  both  by  its  great^  effect  upon  the  Latin  ele- 
ments of  our  language  itself,  and  also  by  the  direct 
introduction  into  it  of  many  of  its  own  words.  It 
is  now  also  the  universal  language  of  social  commerce 

*  The  following  are  specimens  of  Gallic  and  Old  French  : 


G.  alauda,  a  lark. 

0.  F.  aloe. 

"   sagum,  a  military  clock. 

"     sale. 

"  marga,  manure. 

"     marie. 

"  bulga,  Icathei'-bag. 

"     boge. 

"  braccae,  breeches. 

F.  braie. 

"  betula,  birch. 

"   boule. 

"  leuca,  mile. 

"  lieue. 

*  beccus,  beak. 

«  bee. 

112 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 


throughout  civihzed  Europe.  The  oldest  specimen  of 
antique  French  in  existence  occurs  in  the  oath  of 
Charles  the  Bald  against  Lothaire  (a.  d.  842),  at 
Strasburg.  The  old  French  literature  was  at  its 
height  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries. 

Before  turning  away  from  the  Romanic  family  of 
languages  it  deserves  to  be  remarked,  that  by  a  com- 
parison of  them  each  with  the  other,  the  existence  of 
the  Latin,  if  wholly  extinct,  could  be  definitively  ascer- 
tained from  them,  as  an  absolute  foregone  necessity. 
And,  just  as  from  the  midtiplied  analogies  of  these 
modern  dialects  of  the  Latin,  we  revert  infallibly  to  their 
union  in  a  common  parentage,  so,  the  analogies  of  the 
different  Indo-European  families  declare  with  the  same 
certainty,  that  once  there  existed  somewhere  an  un- 
known mother  of  them  all,  who  is  yet  noAv  revealed  to 
us  as  having  herself  had  high  character  and  honor,  only 
by  the  innate  beauty  and^  energy  of  her  illustrious 
progeny."* 


*  A  comparison   of  the   numerals  in  the 

different  Romanic   lan^ 

guages : 

Latin. 

Italian. 

Wallachian. 

Spanish. 

Toi-tnguese. 

French. 

1.  unus 

uno 

unu 

uno 

hum 

un 

2.  duo 

due 

doi 

dos 

dois 

deux 

3.  tres 

tre 

trei 

tres 

tres 

trois 

4.  quatuor 

quattro 

patru 

quatro 

quatro 

quatre 

5.  quinque 

cinque 

quinque 

cinco 

cinco 

cinq 

6.  sex 

sei 

sese 

seis 

seis 

six 

7.  septem 

sette 

septe 

siete 

sete 

sept 

8.  octo 

otto 

optu 

ocho 

oito 

huit 

9.  novem 

nove 

nove 

nueve 

nove 

neuf 

10.  decern 

dicci 

dece 

diez 

dez 

dix 

THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  113 

III.  The  Lcttic  family. 

Under  this  title  are  included  the  Lithuanian,  the 
old  Prussian  and  the  Lettish. 

1st.  The  Lithuanian. 

This  is  a  language  of  very  great  value  to  the  philo- 
logist. It  is  the  most  antique  in  its  forms,  of  all  the 
living  languages  of  the  world,  and  most  akin  in  its  sub- 
stance and  spiiit  to  the  primeval  Sanskrit.  It  is  also 
at  the  same  time  so  much  like  the  Latin  and  the  Greek, 
as  to  occupy  to  the  ear  of  the  etymologist,  in  a  multi- 
tude of  words  not  otherwise  understood,  the  place  of 
an  interpreter  :  with  its  face  fixed  on  the  Latin  and  its 
hand  pointing  backwards  to  the  Sanskrit.  It  has  pre- 
served its  identity  wonderfully  with  the  Sanskrit,  in  re- 
spect generally  to  its  radical,  and,  in  the  case  of  the 
noun,  also  its  flexional  forms.  It  has  seven  of  the  eight 
cases  found  in  the  Sanskrit :  the  ablative  being  wanting, 
which  in  Latin  indeed  is  preserved,  while  two  cases, 
the  locative  and  instrumental,  have  been  lost  in  a  dis- 
tinct form :  the  Greek  has  lost  the  three  cases,  which 
have  disappeared  variously  from  both  the  Lithuanian  and 
Latin ;  while  the  German  has  lost  still  another,  the  vo- 
cative, and  the  English  one  more  even,  the  dative :  re- 
taining only  the  nominative,  genitive  (or  possessive)  and 
accusative,  or  rather  the  possessive  only :  the  nomina- 
tive and  objective  not  being  cases  in  English  in  their 
form.  The  Lithuanian  has  also,  like  the  Greek  and 
Gothic,  but  unlike  the  Latin,  the  dual  number. 


114  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

The  Lithuanians,  living  as  they  do  on  the  southern 
shore  of  the  Baltic  sea,  have  been  from  the  first,  as 
much  as  even  the  Icelanders  themselves,  out  of  the  path 
of  the  successive  tides  of  emigration,  that  so  much 
crushed  and  bore  away  the  forms  of  other  languages. 
Their  language,  accordingly,  on  account  of  the  primeval 
regularity  of  its  roots  and  structure,  stands  related  to 
the  various  branches  of  the  Indo-European  family,  es- 
pecially to  those  of  a  modern  date  whose  forms  have 
been  much  mutilated,  as  a  general  exponent  of  their 
agreements  and  difierences,  or  a  sort  of  general  solvent 
for  the  etymologist,  of  a  multitude  of  otherwise  unre- 
solvable  difficulties.  It  is  like  an  universal  interpreter, 
seeming  to  have  the  gift  of  tongues,  since  its  tongue  is 
so  greatly  like  all  the  rest  in  preserving  the  pure  pri- 
mal' model,  from  which  they  are  all  corrupted  deriva- 
tives, as  to  seem  in  whatever  language  you  hear  the 
chime  of  its  words,  very  much  like  an  old-fashioned 
brogue  of  that  language,  ringing  do^vvn  loud  and  clear 
from  ancient  times.  Its  literatui-e  possesses  neither 
height  nor  breadth,  and  is  limited  to  a  moderate  num- 
ber of  popular  songs,  fables  and  proverbs. 

In  respect  to  the  flexion  of  the  verb,  it  has  departed 
more  widely  from  its  original  than  in  any  thing  else ; 
having  lost  the  principles  of  reduplication  and  augment, 
and  of  the  change  of  the  radical  vowel  in  different 
tenses  to  indicate  the  several  variations  of  time.  The 
passive  is  formed  by  the  aid  of  the  substantive  verb. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  115 

It  lias  a  middle  voice  forined  by  the  use  of  s,  si,  which 
is  a  reflexive  pronoun  of  the  third  person  used  in  all 
the  persons ;  as  also  in  Latin  the  middle  sense  was 
formed  originally,  and  derivatively  from  it  the  passive, 
by  attaching  this  same  reflexive  s  (i.  e.  se,  the  third  per- 
son pronoun),  euphonically  changed  to  r,  to  the  forms 
of  the  active*  voice.  The  phonetic  constitution  of  the 
language  like  that  of  its  radical  forms,  has  been  won- 
derfully preserved  by  the  fortunate  isolation  of  the  peo- 
ple from  the  great  movements  of  the  nations  around 
them,  unimpaired  in  its  leading  elements.  The  Lithu- 
anian is  now  under  the  pressiu-e  of  Russian  institutions, 
influences  and  ideas,  fast  becoming  mongrelized  with 
that  language. 

The  Lithuanians  number  in  both  Russia  and  Prus- 
sia, 1,500,000  people :  not  quite  200,000  living  in 
Prussia.  That  their  language  should  at  last  be  found 
undergoing  serious  changes,  who  can  wonder ;  for  what 
can  resist  the  onset  of  modern  innovation,  or  rather  the 
tendency  of  Modern  Christianity  to  "  make,"  and  of 
Modern  Plumanity  to  receive,  "  all  things  new."  "  Be- 
hold," saith  Christ,  "  I  make  all  things  new !  "  The 
world  is  destined  to  be  in  the  end,  for  God  hath  spoken 
it,  one  great  brotherhood ;  and,  though,  in  some  cli- 

*  Thus  the  passive  forms,  amor,  amaris  or  amare,  &c.,  restored  to 
then-  original  crude  state,  would  be  amo-se,  lit.  I  love  mj-self,  amasse, 
amatse,  &c.  So  the  Germans  use  to  a  striking  degree  the  reflexive 
forms,  in  our  passive  sense,  as  in  sich  schiimen,  (lit.  to  shame  one's 
self,)  tScc. ;  and  in  French  similar  forms  occur,  as  in  il  se  vend  cher. 
(lit.  it  sells  itself  dear,)  it  is  sold  high. 


116  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

mates  and  in  some  races,  the  process  of  fusion  goes  on 
more  slowly  than  in  others,  yet  it  is  still  everywhere, 
with  the  same  certainty,  at  work  towards  the  final  issue. 
Pei-petual  changes  in  detail,  but  perpetual  progress  on 
the  whole :  these  are  the  two  great  primordial  laws  of 
human  progress. 

2d.  The  Old  Prussian. 

This  sister-language  of  the  Lettic  family  perished, 
about  two  hundred  years  ago.  The  only  memorial, 
now  left  of  it,  is  a  Catechism  prepared  by  Albert  of 
Brandenburgh.  While  not  so  ancient  and  pure  in  its 
forms,  it  was  still  much  less  corrupted  than  the  Let- 
tish. It  had  not  so  many  cases  as  the  Lithuanian  and 
possessed  no  dual.  It  was  spoken  on  the  northern  coast 
of  Prussia,  east  of  the  Vistula. 

3.  The  Lettish. 

This  is  the  popular  language  of  Com'land  and  of 
much  of  Livonia.  It  is  properly  but  a  derivative  from 
the  Lithuanian,  like  the  Italian  from  the  Latin.  Its 
points  of  difference  from  it  are,  besides  a  general 
corruption  of  its  forms,  the  following : — 

(1 .)  It  has  the  article  as  the  Lithuanian  had  not. 

(2.)  It  has  opened  a  wide  door  to  foreign  words, 
particularly  to  those  of  German  and  Russian  origin. 

(3.)  It  has  special  euphonic  laws  of  its  own  which 
it  carefully  follows. 

(4.)  Its  grammar  is  much  more  modern  in  its  type 
than  that  of  the  Lithuanian. 


THE   INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  117 

(5.)  Its  phonetic  system  has  been  much  modified 
by  Slavonic  influences. 

IV.  The  Slavic  or  Slavonic  family. 

The  area  covered  by  this  class  of  languages  in 
Europe  is  very  large,  extending  from  the  Arctic  Ocean 
on  the  north,  to  the  Black  and  Adriatic  Seas  on  the 
south  ;  and  from  the  Dwina  on  the  east,  to  the  Hartz 
Mountains  on  the  west.  It  extends  itself,  also,  in 
scattered  districts  through  Asia,  into  the  upper  regions 
of  North  America.  The  name,  Slavic,  comes  from  the 
root,  slu,  Sanskrit,  sru,  (Greek  xXv,  as  in  xXvco,  and 
xXvtoq;  Latin,  inclytm ;  Old  High  German,  hlo), 
meaning  to  hear,  and  to  hear  one's  self  called,  or  to  be 
named,  to  be  celebrated.  Its  meaning  is  therefore* 
"  renowned,"  "  distinguished."  The  different  stages  of 
growth  and  strength  in  the  Slavonic  languages  are  well 
described  by  Sclileicher,  in  his  f  "  Geschichte  der  Slav- 
ischen  Sprache,"  as  being  marked  by  five  distinct 
periods : 

(1.)  The  Slavic,  in  its  primeval  embryo  state, 
among  the  elements  of  the  unknown  primeval  Indo- 
European  mother-tongue. 

*  And  yet  this  is  the  very  word  from  which,  as  in  the  French 
esclavc  and  German  sklave,  comes  our  English  word  slave.  So  those 
great  names.  Caesar  and  Pompey,  are  now  the  common  names  of  dogs 
and  slaves. 

t  This  is  a  brief  article,  but  quite  valuable,  of  some  27  pages  only 
published  since  his  "  Sprachen  Europa's,"  in  "  The  Oriental  Journal  of 
Literature  and  Art,"  and  recently  gathered  with  other  brief  philological 
essays,  by  Kuhn,  into  a  sort  of  periodical  collection,  entitled,  "Beitriige 
zur  Sprachforschung,"  three  parts  of  which  have  now  been  published- 


118  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

(2.)  The  Slavic,  as  Slavo- German. 

(3.)  The  Slavic,  as  Letto-Slavic. 

(4.)  The  Slavic,  as  an  individual  independent  lan- 
guage. 

(5.)  The  Slavic,  as  itself  the  mother  of  different 
dialects. 

The  Slavonic  languages  are  veiy  intimately  affiliated 
one  Yi^ith  the  other.  AVith  any  one  of  their  various 
dialects,  except  the  Bulgarian,  which  has  degenerated 
most  of  all,  it  is  quite  easy  to  make  one's  self  intel- 
ligible in  conversation  with  those  speaking  the  others. 
There  are  religious  manuscripts  in  the  Slavonic  lan- 
guage dating  back  as  far  as  the  eleventh  centuiy ;  and 
by  a  comparison  of  the  present  forms  with  those  of 
that  date,  they  are  found  to  have  been  remarkably 
stable.  The  changes  that  have  taken  place  have 
occurred  chiefly  under  the  influence  of  the  vowels, 
especially  the  i  and  j  sounds,  on  the  consonants  pre- 
ceding them.  By  their  influence  many  mutes  have 
been  changed  into  sibilants,  or  assibilated  to  those 
in  juxta-position  with  them;  and  hence  the  super- 
abundance of  sibilants  in  those  languages.  The 
double  consonants  that  occm*  so  frequently  in  them, 
particularly  in  the  Polish,  while  double  to  the  eye,  are 
like  several  similar  combinations  in  English,*  but 
single  to  the  tongue. 

The  Slavic  languages  are  rich  in  grammatical  forms. 

*  As  in  English,  know,  knee,  knife,  gnash,  gnat,  pneumonia,  &c. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  119 

They  have  the  same  number  of  case-endings  with  the 
Sanskrit,  but  do  not  use  the  article  with  the  noun, 
or  the  pronoun  with  tlie  verb.  In  common  witli  the 
Lithuanian  and  German  hmguages,  they  have  a  double 
form,  the  definite  and  indefinite,  for  each  adjective. 

The  alphabetic  characters  of  this  family  of  lan- 
guages are  of  two  different  kinds.  The  Slavonians  of 
the  Greek  faith  have  what  is  called  the  Cyrilhc 
alphabet,  first  introduced  by  St.  Cyril :  and  it  is  used 
in  the  ecclesiastical  Slavic  now,  Cyril  was  a  Greek 
monk,  who  went  from  Constantinople  (a.  d.,  862),  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  Slavonians.  The  characters 
of  his  alphabet  are  chiefly  Greek,  although  considerably 
modified  ;  and  new  signs  also  are  introduced,  to  rep- 
resent sounds  not  found  in  the  Greek.  The  Russians 
themselves  also  used  the  Cyrillic  alphabet  up  to  the 
time  of  Peter  the  Great,  who  boldly  rejected  nine  of 
its  characters,  and  then  cut  and  carved  what  remained 
misparingly  into  a  more  tasteful  form.  Not  only  the 
Russian,  but  also  the  kindred  Servian  alphabets,  are 
formed  with  some  alterations  from  this  alphabet,  and 
are  of  recent  origin.  The  style  of  orthography  used  by 
the  other  Slavonians,  as  the  Croats,  Bohemians,  Lusi- 
tanians,  Illyrians  and  Poles,  is  of  the  Roman  order 
like  our  own,  although  somewhat  dialectic  in  each  case. 
There  is  also  a  secondary  form  of  the  Ecclesiastico- 
Slavonic  to  be  found  occasionally,  called  the  Hierony- 
mic,  from  the  idea  that  it  was  invented  by  Hieronymus. 


120  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

It  is  however  quite  doubtful,  when  and  by  whom  it 
was  invented,  and  for  what  special  pm*pose. 

The  Slavic  family  of  languages  consists,  properly,  of 
two  leading  branches : 

1.  The  South-eastern  Slavic. 

2.  The  Western  Slavic. 

Some  of  the  general  points  of  difference  existing 
between  these  two  branches,  although  marked  with 
many  exceptions,  are  such  as  these : 

(1 .)  An  euphonic  insertion  of  d  before  1,  in  those 
of  the  second  division,  but  not  in  those  of  the  first. 
(2.)  The  letters  d  and  t  before  1  and  n,  are  rejected  in 
those  of  the  first,  but  not  in  those  of  the  second. 
(3.)  The  labials  v,  b,  p,  m,  when  followed  by  j,  take  in 
the  first  an  1  between  them,  but  not  in  the  second. 

I.  The  South-eastern  Slavic  branch : 

1st.  The  Eussian. 
2d.  The  Bulgarian. 
3d.  The  Illyrian. 

1st.  The  Russian  language. 

It  was  300  years  ago,  that  Russia  succeeded  in 
throwing  off  the  Mongol  yoke,  which  had  for  about 
two  centuries,  well  nigh  crushed  out  its  very  fife;  and, 
since  the  first  full  discovery  then  made  of  her  own  real 
inward  streno;th,  she  has  been  marchins;  forward  in  a 
lofty  style  of  effort  and  of  honor,  in  arts  and  arms,  in 
learning  and  social  improvement,  and  in  every  thing  but 
rehgion.     The  same  evil  genius  of  hierarchical  priest- 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  121 

craft  stands  in  organized  terror  by  her  side,  to  poison 
continually  the  cup  of  all  her  sweets,  that  has  drugged 
for  so  many  centuries  the  papal  nations  of  Christendom 
with  its  sorceries.  Although  Russian  orthography  has 
been  greatly  modified  by  the  influence  of  ecclesiastico- 
Slavic  elements ;  the  pronunciation  of  Russian  words 
has  remained  true  to  their  early  forms,  so  that  it  almost 
embraces  in  fact  two  languages  in  itself:  one  to  the 
eye  and  another  to  the  ear. 

The  Russian  language,  like  the  Russian  empire, 
spreads  over  a  very  wide  domain.  It  is  with  the  Ser- 
vian, the  most  harmonious  of  all  the  Slavonic  tongues. 
Consonantal  combinations  which  would  otherwise  be 
harsh,  it  often  improves  by  the  special  insertion  of 
vowels.  While  the  modern  Slavonic  languages  agree 
wonderfully  with  both  the  Latin  and  Greek,  the  re- 
semblance of  the  Russian,  especially,  to  the  Latin  is 
very  striking.  Donaldson  quotes  with  approval  a  mod- 
em traveller,  as  saying  that  the  founders  of  Rome  spoke 
the  Russian  language.  In  the  implication  made,  how- 
ever, by  such  a  quotation,  that  so  unclassical  a  surmise 
is  to  be  received  as  a  literal  historical  truth,  he  shows 
the  same  credulity  and  the  same  tendency  to  philolo- 
gical marvellousness,  that  elsewhere  often  characterize 
his  speculations.  Such  tendencies  indeed  are  among 
the  customary  weaknesses  of  that  class  of  skeptical 
minds,  whether  in  natural,  theological,  historical,  lin- 
guistic, or  other  science  which  he  reoresents. 


122  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

Ali'eady  Russian  literature,  like  Russian  arms  and 
Russian  enterprise,  has  begun  to  show  some  of  those 
gigantic  proportions  in  which  it  is  destined  to  lift  up 
itself  in  full  view,  when,  under  a  general  equal  evan- 
gelical system  of  social  life,  its  people  shall  come  to 
.appreciate  and  undertake  their  true  work  among  the 
nations.  The  Russian  contains  three  separate  dialects. 
(1.)  The  Great  Russian. 

A  special  form  of  this  dialect,  the  Muscovite,  is  the 
standard,  in  respect  to  both  orthography  and  orthoepy, 
for  all  the  dialects.     The  Great  Russian  is  spoken  from 
the  Peipus  Sea  to  the  Sea  of  Azof. 
(2.)  The  Little  Russian. 

This  is  spoken  in  the  southern  part  of  Russia,  as  in 
Galicia,  and  shows  many  traces  of  foreign  influences 
upon  it.  It  has  been  but  very  little  used  as  a  written 
dialect,  and  that  chiefly  of  late,  although  it  is  easily 
recognized  in  ecclesiastico-Slavonic  as  far  back  as  the 
11th  century. 

(3.)  The  White  Russian. 

This  is  spoken  in  diiferent  parts  of  Lithuania,  espe- 
cially in  Wilna,  Grodno,  Bielostok,  &c.,  and  in  Wliite 
Russia.  It  is  a  new  dialect,  and  has  grown  up  since 
the  union  of  the  Lithuanians  with  the  Poles,  and  is 
full  of  Polonisms.  The  limits  of  its  sway  are  much 
narrower  than  those  of  either  of  the  other  dialects,  and 
it  has  made  no  throne  for  itself  in  books  :  nor  has  it 


THE   INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  123 

constituted  its  products  a  part  of  the  high  commerce, 
that  prevails  in  the  world  of  thought. 
2d.  The  Bulgarian. 

This  language  spreads  over  the  large  and  fruitful 
space,  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  mouth  of  the  Dan- 
ube, on  the  east  by  the  Euxine  in  part,  on  the  south 
by  a  line  running  from  Salonica  to  Ochrida,  and  on 
the  west  by  the  Pruth,  or  rather  a  line  a  little  beyond 
its  western  bank.  The  Bulgarians  have  a  sohd  deep 
earnest  character,  beyond  the  races  that  surround  them, 
which  must  erelong  bring  them  and  theu'  language, 
and  all  its  archaeology,  into  bolder  rehef  than  hitherto 
upon  the  page  of  history.    . 

Tlie  ecclesiastical  Slavonic  or,  as  it  is  sometimes 
called,  the  Cyrillic  dialect,  which  is  but  the  old  Bul- 
garian modified,  although  no  longer  a  living  language, 
is  yet  used  by  them  at  the  present  time,  in  common 
with  both  the  Russians  and  the  Servians,  as  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Scriptures  and  of  their  religious  books ; 
so  that,  although  in  the  ordinary  business  of  life  it  is 
dead  to  the  tongue,  it  is  still  alive  to  the  heart.  In 
all  nations,  old  languages  and  old  forms  of  language 
find  their  last  hiding-place  in  the  temples  and  services 
of  religion,  and  there  claim  forever  the  right  of  sanc- 
tuary. Nothing  but  Time,  which  wears  out  all  things, 
or  the  Spirit  of  Evangelical  Reform,  which  can  remove 
any  obstacle,  has  ever  sufficed  to  dislodge  them  from 
these  cherished  retreats. 


124  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

It  is  in  the  old  Bulgarian,  that  the  most  ancient 
religious  writings  of  the  Slavonians  are  found  :  the  man- 
uscript of  the  oldest  date  being  a  collection  of  the 
four  gospels,  prepared  for  Prince  Ostromir  in  the  year 
1056.  There  are  also  old  manuscripts  of  the  language, 
probably  older  than  this,  in  the  Glago-litic  alphabet 
without  date,  Avhich,  though  of  the  same  origin  with 
the  Cyrilhc,  is  yet  difierent  in  its  graphic  symbols. 
Schafarik  reo-ards  them  as  the  most  ancient  of  all  Bui- 
garian  records ;  and  Schleicher  proposes  to  call  the 
Bulgarian  v/ritten  in  this  alphabet,  the  Old  Church- 
Slavic  :  as  distinguished  from  the  Bulgarian  found  in 
the  Cyrillic  alphabet,  which  he  denominates  Church- 
Slavic.  Not  that  the  writings  in  the  Glago-litic  alpha- 
bet were  all  made  necessarily  before  Cyril's  day,  but 
that  what  were  not  so  written  were  put  in  this  old 
character  from  a  sort  of  traditionary  pride  in  its  an- 
tique aspect. 

The  present  Bulgarian  is  far  inferior  as  a  language, 
in  the  richness  of  its  forms  and  the  completeness  of  its 
structure,  to  the  ecclesiastical  Slavonic,  and  remains 
in  its  present  state  as  it  was  three  centuries  ago.  Its 
contour  is  plainly  defined,  as  separate  from  all  the 
other  Slavic  languages,  by  certain  euphonic*  principles 
and  tendencies,  which  prevail  in  it. 

*  These  are  as  quoted  by  Schleicher  (Spraclien  Europas.  p.  207,) 
from  Schafarik,  the  groat  historian  of  the  Slavonic  literature:  (1.)  The 
insertion  of  an  s  before  t,  when  softened  by  an  i  or  j  placed  after  it,  as 
in  noszt  for  notj,  night.     (2.)  The  insertion  of  z  (English  zh).  before  a 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN  LANGUAGES.  125 

3d.  The  Servian  or  Illyriaii. 

When  written  m  the  CyrilHc  character,  as  by  those 
of  the  Greek  Church,  it  is  called  Servian ;  but  when  in 
the  Latin  alphabet,  as  by  the  Roman  Catholics,  it  is, 
called  Illyrian :  so  much  do  men  like  names  and  fight 
for  mere  words. 

Under  this  general  title  are  included  in  one  the 
Servian,  Croatian  and  Slowenic  dialects,  which  them- 
selves also  in  turn  might  be  resolved  into  still  other  dia- 
lects. Unifomiity  is  not  found  to  be  a  law  of  hu- 
man development,  in  the  department  of  speech,  any 
more  than  in  any  other  direction  secular,  or  religious, 
practical  or  intellectual.  The  Servian  dialect  is  very 
rich  in  vowels  and  so  exceedingly  musical  to  the  ear. 
With  the  perfect  sacrifice  indeed  of  all  scholastic  in- 
stincts, and  with  none  of  that  love  of  archetypal  ety- 
mology so  characteristic  of  the  Greeks,  who,  while 
always  at  work  artistically  upon  the  forms  of  language 
to  improve  them,  yet  always  left  carefully  on  each  new 
form  some  mark,  that  should  forever  in-um  the  remem- 
brance of  the  one  that  they  had  destroyed ;  the  Ser- 
vians, like  the  old  Iconoclasts,  break  down  old  words 
and  parts  of  words,  and  break  them  off  with  eager 
pleasure,  if  they  can  only  thereby  get  a  fuller,  finer, 
sweeter  sound.      Thus  consonants  have  been  driven 

softened  d  or  instead  of  it,  as  in  mezdafor  medja,  limits.  (3.)  A  pecu- 
liar adjective  ending,  in — ago.  (4.)  The  use  of  the  personal  pronouns 
ti,  si,  instead  of  the  attributions  moj  my :  tvoj  thy  and  svoi  his,  as  in 
carstvo  mi,  my  kingdom. 


126 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 


everjAvliere  tlirougli  the  language,  out  of  words  where 
they  had  nestled  for  centuries.  The  Croatian  and 
Slowenic  dialects  have  no  historical  importance.  The 
Slowenic  is  spoken  by  the  people  of  Carinthia,  Steier- 
mark  and  Carniola.  The  oldest  monument  of  the 
language  dates  back  to  the  tenth  century.* 

11.  The  Western  Slavic  family. 

This  includes  four  special  dialects,  which,  on  ac- 
count of  the  historical  insignificance  of  most  of  those 
who  have  spoken  them,  we  can  dismiss  rapidly. 


*  Slavonic  Correspondences. 


Sanskrit. 

Zend. 

Greek. 

Latin. 

vrikas,      a 
■wolf 

vehrkas 

\6.oi 

lupus 

aham,  I 

azem 

eyo'j 

ego 

bhratar,    a 
brother. 

brata 

<f^p(lTi';rj 

frater 

(l>r,y6i 

fagus 

Tuvan, 
youtli, 

yavauo 

juvenis 

ganda,   the 
cheek     or 
chiu 

yvaOii 
ytvvi 

■  gena 

Litliuanian:  Slavonic. 


vilkas        vluku 


bratr  1 

brolis  -l  I     and    S 
brat    3 


jaunas 


zandas 


buku 


jun 


szczeka 


Gothic. 


vulfs 


ik 


bruother 

b6ka 
(Gei'man, 

buche, 
beech ; 

buch, 
book.) 

Geiinan, 
jing 


kinnus 


Enslish. 


wolf 


brother 
book 


>■  beech 


youth 


chiu 


In  the  following  Slavonic  words,  who  can  fail  to  see  the  resemblance 
to  familiar  classical  words,  especially  Latin :  moryo,  the  sea :  voda, 
■water :  Icosti,  a  bone :  volya,  will :  gosti,  a  guest :  syny,  a  son :  domy, 
a  hoiLsc :  mator,  a  mother. 


THF    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  127 

1.  The  Lechish. 

2.  The  Tschechish  or  Bohemian, 

3.  The  Sorbenwendish. 

4.  The  Polabish. 

The  Lecliish  is  so  called,  from  the  once  powerful 
Lechs ;  and  its  domain  was  formerly  much  wider  than 
now.  The  Polish  and  the  Kashubish,  a  dialect  of  the 
Pohsh,  are  its  present  representatives.  In  this  lan- 
guage sibilants  abound ;  and  as  they  are  quite  varied, 
the  differences  between  them  are  often  difficult  of  dis- 
covery except  to  a  native's  ear.  Besides  also  being 
full  of  Usping  and  hissing  utterances,  it  contains  many 
nasal  sounds ;  and  is  distinguished  by  a  double  vocaU- 
zation  of  the  letter  1  as  either  a  palatal  or  a  guttural, 
which  is  peculiar.  Poland  lost  her  place  among  the 
nations,  by  the  selfish  internecine  strife  of  her  princes 
and  great  men  with  each  other ;  and  though  in  the 
days  of  Knight  Errantry  her  sons  exhibited  as  ener- 
getic, manly,  martial  qualities,  as  those  of  any  other 
people  ;  yet,  having  been  once  laid  prostrate  by  parri- 
cidal hands,  she  has  never  under  the  tyranny  of  her 
spiritual  conquerors  at  Rome,  or  of  her  civil  conquerors 
at  St.  Petersburg!!,  been  aUowed  the  privilege  of  a  resur- 
rection. She  has  never  therefore  figm'ed  as  she  might 
have  done,  upon  the  stage  of  history ;  and  her  language 
awakens  no  pleasant  memories  of  travel  and  discovery, 
of  research  and  spoil  or  of  pleasm^e  and  profit,  in  the 
hearts  of  the  lovers    of  learning.     The  fountains  of 


128  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

knowledge  and  thought  and  truth  and  all  beauty  have 
been  opened  for  them  on  other  shores,  and  by  other 
hands  ;  and  Poland  is  spoken  of  only  with  sadness. 

A  Russian  and  a  Pole  have  so  many  grammatical 
and  lexical  forms  in  their  two  languages  alike,  although 
belonging  to  the  two  separate  Slavic  families,  that  they 
can  each  read  the  other's  language  about  as  readily  as 
a  Spaniard  can  the  Italian.  A  Russian  also,  it  is  said, 
can  comprehend  easily  the  ancient  Bulgarian.  It  has 
indeed  been  claimed  by  some  writers,  that  all  the  va- 
rious Slavonic  dialects  differ  no  more  from  each  other, 
than  did  the  various  dialects  of  Greece  one  from  the 
other. 

The  Tschechish  is  the  speech  of  the  Slavonic  in- 
habitants of  Bohemia,  Moravia  and  north-western  Hun- 
gary, and  occurs  sporadically  throughout  almost  aU 
Hungary.  In  respect  to  both  of  its  two  leading  dia- 
lects, the  Bohemian  and  Slowakish,  but  especially  the 
former,  it  can  boast  of  an  historical  organic  identity, 
that  dates  back  half  way  at  least,  towards  the  begin- 
ninof  of  the  Christian  Era. 

The  Sorbenwendish,  or  Sorbish  as  it  is  called  by 
the  Germans,  or  Wendish  as  the  Lusatians  name  it, 
prevails  in  limited  parts  of  Upper  and  Lower  Lusatia 
The  Polabish,  as  the  word  indicates  (po  along  and 
Labe  the  Elbe),  was  spoken  more  or  less,  anciently,  by 
those  living  on  both  sides  of  the  Elbe.  It  disappeared, 
as  a  vernacular  language,  about  two  centuries  ago ;  al- 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  129 

though  some  few  famiUes  in  that  region  §till  keep  it 
ahve  among  themselves. 

The  domain  of  the  Slavonic  languages  has  been 
always,  with  singular  uniformity,  on  the  middle  ground 
between  barbarism  and  civilization.  Their  literature 
also  has  been  almost  always  borrowed  from  other 
nations  :  a  habit,  which,  when  pursued  continuously  by 
any  people  whether  with  willing  enthusiasm  or  blind 
thoughtlessness,  is  sure  to  spread  a  blighting  mildew 
over  all  the  germinating  tendencies  and  forces  of  native 
genius.  Like  all  otlier  people  also,  whether  viewed 
individually  or  socially,  who  have  lacked  principles  of 
self-reliance  and  earnest  self-development,  in  a  world  so 
full  on  every  hand  of  unequal  and  unjust  rivalry,  they 
have  been  jostled  aside  and  dashed  down  by  stronger 
races  rushing  against  them,  in  their  strife  for  the  prizes 
of  this  world. 

There  are  found  in  the  interior  of  Germany  at  the 
present  day,  some  Slavonic  names  of  cities  and  rivers, 
even  as  far  west  as  the  Elbe :  the  only  monuments 
now  left  of  their  ancient  occupation  of  the  regions 
lying  westward  of  their  present  home  in  Europe.  But 
as,  on  the  one  hand,  they  have  succumbed  to  the 
influence  of  the  more  civilized  and  powerful  races 
on  their  western  borders,  so,  on  the  other,  have  the 
races  less  civihzed  at  the  east  yielded  to  them ;  and 
Slavonic  ideas  and  institutions,  Slavonic  law  and  order 


130  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

now  rule  over  the  whole  northern  part  of  the  continent 
of  Asia. 

As  the  Greeks  and  Latins  were  originally  blended 
in  full  combination  with  each  other,  as  one  primitive 
race  ;  so,  the  Slavonians  and  Germans,  although  never 
historically  one,  have  yet  been  fi'om  the  first  in  long 
contact  with  each  other  in  large  masses,  and  must  have 
come  into  Europe,  at  a  nearly  contemporaneous  period. 

V.  The  Gothic,  or  Germanic  family. 

In  the  Gothic  version  of  the  Scriptures  made  by 
Ulphilas  (a.  d.  388)  are  all  the  remains  that  the  world 
now  possesses  of  that  noble  old  tongue,  the  queen- 
mother  of  so  many  princely  languages.  The  Goths 
were  living  at  that  time  on  the  lower  side  of  the 
Danube,  around  its  mouth.  In  Herodotus  they  are 
called  the  FtTcci,^  and  in  Tacitus  the  Getae,  and  are 

*  In  Menander's  comedies,  a  Te'roj  or  Aaos  is  introduced  as  the 
standing  representative  of  a  slave,  and  as  being  brought  from  Thrace 
into  Greece.  The  Tiros  was  a  Goth  and  the  Aao'<r  (Latin  Davus  for 
Dacvus,  the  fuller  form  of  Dacus)  a  Dacian.  Compare  with  ^aos  for 
AaFoy,  also  vtos  for  j/eFos-  Lat.  novus  and  wuv  for  ui-pov  Lat.  ovum. 
Strabo  expressly  states,  that  AaKot  and  Aaoi  are  the  same.  When  the 
Getae  and  Daci  ai'e  represented  as  occupying  separate  regions,  the  divi- 
sion is  always  this :  that  the  Getae  live  in  the  north-eastern  part  of 
the  region,  about  the  mouth  of  the  Danube,  and  the  Daci  in  the  south- 
western. As,  from  the  title  Getae,  came  Gothi,  Getini,  Gothoni,  or 
Gothones,  as  they  were  variously  called  by  Latin  authors,  so,  from 
Daci  came  Dacini.  afterwards  Dani  and  the  modern  Danes  represent  the 
ancient  Daci.  In  the  middle  ages  indeed  we  find  writers  using  Dacus 
for  Danus  and  Dacia  for  Dania  or  Denmark.  In  Paissia,.also,  a  Dane 
is  called  a  Datschanin,  and  in  Lapland  a  Dazh. —  Grimni's  GescJdchte 
der  Deiitsclien  Sprachc.  p.  132. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  131 

described  as  living  in  those  times  in  the  northern  part 
of  Thrace,  between  the  Haemus  and  tlie  Danube.  In 
later  times  they  divided  into  two  portions  :  the  Ostro- 
goths or  eastern  Goths,  and  the  Visigoths  or  western 
Goths,  the  former  setthng  in  Italy  and  the  latter  in 
Spain.  Their  language  however  did  not  take  root 
successfully  in  either  country.  A  few  Gothic  memorials 
were  left  behind  in  Italy  ;  and  in  Spain,  besides  a  few 
hereditary  baptismal  names  and  the  garnered  pride  of 
a  few  old  noble  families  of  Gothic  blood,  all  records  of 
their  ancient  dominion  there  are  obliterated. 

The  Gothic  stands  related  to  the  Germanic  lan- 
guages generally,  very  much  as  the  Sanski'it  to  the 
Indo-Eiu-opean  family.  From  want  of  any  knowledge  of 
the  languages  preceding  them  of  the  same  class,  they 
each  have  the  historic  aspect  of  a  mother  of  that  class  ; 
but  strict  philological  analysis  places  them  each,  rather 
in  the  position  of  an  elder  sister  standing  so  far  apart 
in  age  and  character  from  the  younger  sisters,  as  to 
fulfil  in  form  the  offices  of  a  parent.  An  interval  of 
four  centuries  separates  the  Gothic  Scriptures,  from  any 
literary  documents  now  extant  of  the  other  Germanic 
tribes. 

The  phonetical  constitution  of  the  Germanic  lan- 
guages appears  in  its  most  simple  normal  elements  in 
the  Gothic,  out  of  which  spread  all  the  rest,  as  branches 
from  one  common  stem. 

In  the  Gothic  languages  are  included : 


132  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

1,  The  Low  German. 

2.  The  High  German. 

I.  The  Low  German  embraces  : 

(1.)  The  Norse,  or  Scandinavian  languages. 

(2.)  The  Anglo-Saxon. 

(3.)  TheFrisic. 

(4.)  The  Low  Dutch. 

1.  The  Norse  languages  include  three  Special 
dialects  :   the  Icelandic,  Swedish  and  Danish. 

The  Icelandic  or  Old  Norse  dialect  is  of  a  high 
antiquity.  It  was  originally  translated  from  Norway 
to  Iceland,  and  has  there  wonderfully  retained  to  the 
present  time,  its  early  characteristics.  The  Edda  is  the 
chief  national  epic  of  the  old  Norse,  written,  as  is  sup- 
posed, in  the  tenth  century  or  about  midway  between 
our  day  and  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era.  Its 
heroes  are  all  heathen. 

The  Swedish  and  Danish  may  be  properly  called  the 
new  Norse  languages.  These  are  greatly  changed  from 
their  first  estate,  in  every  way.  The  Swedish  is  the 
purest  Norse  of  the  two.  The  Danish  has  been  greatly 
affected  by  the  contact  of  the  German,  and  changed  its 
old  full  a-sound  in  many  words  to  e.  The  Norwegian 
dialect  has  been  so  entirely  overtopped  and  overgrown 
by  the  neighboring  Danish,  that  it  has  shrunk  down 
into  perfect  insignificance,  and  deserves  no  separate 
place  in  history.  The  Danish  prevails  also  in  the 
Faroe,  Shetland  and  Orkney  Islands.     As  the  Gothic 


THE   INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  133 

family  has  had  its  home  between  the  Celtic  and  Slavic 
families,  its  different  languages  show  many  signs  of 
their  influence  upon  them  :  the  Norse  languages  ex- 
hibiting the  most  proof  of  Celtic  influence  and  the 
German  of  Slavic. 

The  Norse  family  exhibits  as  such  two  remarkable 
characteristics : 

(a)  The  suffixing  of  the  definite  article  (hinn,  hin, 
hit)  to  the  substantive,  as  if  a  part  of  it,  as  in  sweminn 
(m)  the  young  man;  eignm  (f)  the  possession;  and 
skeipzV  (f )  the  ship. 

(b)  A  peculiar  passive  flexion.  An  original  re- 
flexive pronoun  is  appended  immediately  to  the  verb, 
giving  it  not  as  would  be  natural  a  reflexive  sense,  but 
a  passive  one.  In  this  respect  however  these  languages 
agree  with  the  Latin,  although  in  the  latter  the  fact  is 
more  disguised.  Thus  brenni,  "I  burn"  is  in  the 
passive  brennist  "  I  am  burned  ;  and  brennum  "  we 
bum"  becomes  brennumst,  "we  are  burned."  The 
singular  and  plural  forms  are  the  same  for  the  other 
persons  respectively  as  for  the  first ;  and  these  are  dis- 
tinguished, only  by  the  different  personal  pronouns  pre- 
fixed to  them. 

(2.)  The  Anglo-Saxon. 

The  Anglo-Saxons  first  went  to  England,  in  the 
middle  of  the  fifth  centuiy.  In  the  place  of  its  nativity, 
their  language  as  such  has  disappeared.  What  relics 
remain  of  it  on  the  continent  are  to  be  found,  only 

10 


134  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

as  membra  disjecta,  in  some  few  Low-German  dialects. 
The  English  language  however,  which,  for  all  the  ends 
and  wants  of  human  speech,  has  never  been  sm'passed 
by  any  language  upon  earth,  is  ribbed  with  its  oaken 
strength.  While  it  has  large  admixtures  of  words  de- 
rived from  the  Celtic  aborigines  of  England,  and  stUl 
more  of  Latin  origin  received  from  its  Roman  and  Nor- 
man invaders,  its  predominant  type  is  yet  Anglo-Saxon. 
The  original  Britons  were  Celts,  who  were  in  the  end 
attacked  and  repulsed  by  the  Saxons  or  Teutons  (a.  d. 
450-780),  who  themselves  also  afterwards  succumbed 
to  the  Normans  (a.  d.  1066).  These  great  historic  facts 
are  all  clearly  treasured  up  in  the  imperishable  monu- 
ments of  the  language  itself.  The  lexical  elements  of 
our  language,  however,  are  but  its  mere  outside  body ; 
while  its  inward  life  and  spirit  are  to  be  determined  by 
its  grammar,  or  the  forms  and  rules  by  which  its  ele- 
ments are  combined  together.  Its  grammatical  consti- 
tution is  Teutonic ;  and,  taking  om'  point  of  view  here, 
we  are  able  to  see  in  reference  to  its  lexicography,  what 
is  the  natural  or  stable  element  in  it,  and  what  are  the 
incidental  or  superadded  elements.  In  every  part  of 
the  language  its  inward  chemical  and  vital  agencies  are 
all  Teutonic.  A  very  small  portion  of  its  vocabulary  is 
Celtic ;  and  of  Latin  it  absorbed  far  less  than  any  of  the 
other  provinces  of  Rome,  although  it  imbibed  so  much  : 
so  that  its  lexical  elements  are  chiefly  Anglo-Saxon.* 

*  Harrison  (ou  the  English  language,  p.  55,  2d  American  Edit., 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  135 

It  was  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  that  it 
took-  on  its  full  features  as  a  noble  independent  lan- 
guage by  itself,  among  the  other  languages  of  the 
world. 

The  speech,  in  which  such  an  author  as  Shakspeare 
could  find  his  native  air  and  element,  while  honored  by 
the  great  genius  who  enrobed  himself  in  it,  is  yet  proved 
thereby  to  possess  adaptations  to  all  the  varied  phases 
of  human  life  and  all  the  multiplied  complexities  of  hu- 
man thought  and  feehng,  which  raise  it  as  a  whole  to 
a  height  above  that  of  any  other  human  tongue.  Who 
would  expect  to  see  Shakspeare,  when  translated  into 
Latin,  French  or  Spanish  or  even  German,  appear  with 
his  own  immortal  beauty  unimpaired  ?  The  same  lus- 
trous face  woidd  shine  upon  us,  but  only  through  a 
mist.     Schlegel's  translation  of  Shakspeare  is  indeed 

Phila.)  estimates  the  proportion  of  Anglo-Saxon  terms  in  English,  to 
be  fifteen-twentieths  of  its  entire  bulk;  which  seems  to  the  writer 
quite  too  high  an  estimate.  It  will  amuse  any  true  etymological 
scholar  to  hear  an  enthusiast  for  Anglo-Saxonism  enumerate  what  he 
calls  words  strictly  of  that  class,  in  which  he  will  include  by  the  score, 
because  so  short  and  pithy,  multitudes  of  Latin-English  words,  like 
much  (multus)  ;  very  (verus)  ;  sort  (sors)  ;  rest  (re-sto)  ;  ay  !  (uto)  ; 
air  (aer) ;  day  (dies) ;  sex  (secus)  ;  enter  (intro) ;  chief  (caput) ; 
crutch  (crux)  ;  pay  (pacare)  ;  pray  (precari)  •  brace  (brachium)  ;  paii 
(par)  ;  stick  (or/fo',  m-stigo) ;  axe  {a^ivrj) ;  time  (tempus)  ;  soap  (sapo) 
strap  (stroppus) ;  cost  (consto) ;  rule  (regula) ;  other  (alter,  Frenclt 
autre) ;  old  (altus) ;  race  (racemus)  ;  space  (spatium)  ;  new  (novus) ; 
part  (pars) ;  sweet  (suavis) ;  stand,  stay,  state,  estate,  stable,  stall 
stallion,  constant,  distant,  instant,  &c.,  all  from  sto,  stare,  to  stand  ;  and 
so  safe,  save,  salve,  salver  from  salvus,  and  have,  behave,  habit,  inhabit, 
able,  &c.,  from  habeo. 


136  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

justly  celebrated ;  but  the  Shakspeare  that  he  intro- 
duces to  his  countrymen  is  a  German  Shakspeare,  and 
not  the  Shakspeare  that  we  know  and  love  as  our  own. 
As  well  might  one  attempt  to  deliver  from  some  stringed 
instrument,  tones  that  can  resound  only  from  the  loud 
swelling  organ ;  as  to  hope  to  express  his  utterances  truly 
and  in  a  style  as  if  vernacular,  in  any  other  language  than 
his  own.  In  no  language  has  a  pyramid  of  hterature  so 
high,  so  broad,  so  deep,  so  wondrous,  been  erected,  as 
in  the  English.  In  no  other  language  are  there  such 
storied  memories  of  the  past.  No  other  nation  has 
wrestled,  like  the  English,  with  Man  and  Truth  and  Time 
and  every  thing  great  and  difficult ;  and  no  language 
accordingly  is  so  full  of  all  experiences  and  utterances, 
human  and  divine.  Like  that  great  world-book,  the 
Bible,  which  has  done  so  much  to  ennoble  and  purify 
it,  it  has  an  equipment  for  its  special  office,  as  the  bearer 
of  that  book  to  all  nations,  grand  and  beautiful,  in  its 
adaptations  to  the  wants  of  universal  humanity.  Eew 
of  the  scholars  and  educators  of  our  land,  to  their  shame 
be  it  spoken,  seem,  although  standing  within  the  sphere 
of  its  beauties  and  under  the  glowing  finnament  of  its 
literature,  to  appreciate  in  any  worthy  manner  the  glory 
of  their  mother  tongue ;  which  yet  other  nations,  look- 
ing on  it  from  without,  admire  so  greatly ;  and  Avhicli, 
in  the  eyes  of  future  ages  will  appear  in  the  far-off  dis- 
tance, radiant  with  heavenly  beauty.  While  to  the 
nations  of  Europe,  whether  approaching  it  on  the  Ro- 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  137 

manic  or  the  Teutonic  side,  of  which  two  languages 
chiefly,  as  of  two  distinct  hemispheres  forming  one  glo- 
rious orb,  it  is  composed,  it  is  more  difficult  than  any 
modern  if  not  also  than  any  ancient  language  to  he  thor- 
oughly mastered ;  to  us,  who  first  learned  it  in  our 
mother's  arms,  it  seems  itself  as  natural  a  portion  as 
any  other  of  our  own  spontaneous  vitality.  Before  it, 
as  before  the  ideas  which  it  bears  like  a  flaming  sword 
against  all  forms  of  despotism,  the  world  everywhere 
bends  in  submission ;  and  it  is  fast  stamping  its  own 
enduring  impress  and  enforcing  its  laws  of  personal 
and  social  life,  on  every  part  of  the  world  civilized  and 
savage.  It  has  not  indeed,  like  the  German  and  other 
modern  languages,  the  tendency  or  the  capacity  to  en- 
large its  fabric,  by  new  combinations  and  developments 
of  its  own  materials.  The  German  is,  like  the  orange- 
tree,  loaded  at  the  same  time  with  fruits  and  full-blown 
blossoms  and  nascent  buds ;  while  the  English,  like 
some  thrifty  fruit-tree  in  the  temperate  zone,  is  in  one 
predominant  state  only  at  a  time,  and  that  has  been 
one  for  more  than  two  hundred  years  of  full  and  golden 
fruitage.  But,  nnlike  languages  possessing  inward  ele- 
ments of  self-enlargement,  it  has  a  wondrous  faculty  for 
appropriating  to  its  own  use  and  growth  all  the  strength 
and  beauty  of  all  other  tongues. 

The  three  great  languages  of  the  world  selected  in 
the  providence  of  God  for  the  conveyance  of  His  word 
and  will  to  mankind,  deserve  from  that  fact  a  distinct 


138 


HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 


enumeration  and  association  with  each  other :  the  Phoe- 
nician or  Hebrew,  the  language  in  which  the  Okl  Cov- 
enant was  pubhshed ;  the  Greek,  that  of  the  New ;  and 
the  Enghsh,  the  language  of  modern  civilization,  reli- 
gion and  human  progress  beyond  all  others,  and  in 
whose  words  and  by  whose  people  the  truths  of  the 
Bible  are  brought  home  to  the  business  and  bosoms  of 
all  nations.  Like  the  angel  seen  standing  in  the  sun, 
the  Enghsh  mind  enlightened  and  sanctified  stands 
bright  and  beautiful  on  the  margin  of  modem  times, 
holding  up  God's  messages  of  hght  and  love  on  high 
before  the  eyes  of  all  men. 

In  ground-forms  and  the  whole  element  of  flexion 
and  the  details  of  a  ramified  syntax,  the  English,*  when 
compared  with  the  ancient  languages,  is  poor  indeed. 
Our  words  also  are  much  mutilated,  especially  in  the 
mode  of  their  pronunciation.     They  appear  everywhere 

*  It  is  certainly  quite  an  interesting  not  to  say  surprising  fact,  that 
the  English  should  in  many  of  its  forms,  be  more  like  the  primeval 
Sanskrit,  than  the  intermediate  languages.     Thus  compare : 


Sanskrit.  Greek. 

b3,d,  to  wash  cue's  self  Pa\avcXov 


bhu,  to  be 

bhratar,  a  brother 

bhur,  to  bear 

blirus,  the  brow 

bhuj,  to  flee 

duhitri,  a  daughter 

gi,  to  go,  and) 
gam,  to  come  ) 

go,  a  cow 
geu.  gavas 


(pveiv 

(pparfip 

(pipciv 

d<ppvf 

(ptvyciv 

Bxiyarrip 

fiaive.lv 
gen.  So6i 


Latin, 
balneum 

fui 

fratcr 

ferre 

froDS 
fuffcre 


bos 
bovis 


German 
bade 

bin 

bruder 
bareu 
brauue* 


English, 
(bath  and 
(bathe 

be 

brother 

bear 

brow 

budge 

daughter 


go 
come 


*  As  in  Augenbraune,  the  eyebrows  :  occu'^'" 


tochter 
gehen 

kuh  cow 

-"^■^  in  composition, 


THE    INDO-EUKOPEAN    LANGUAGES. 


139 


througliout  the  language,  to  the  eye  of  a  scientific  ety- 
mologist, bruised  and  broken  in  their  aspect.  Even 
our  large  stock  of  Anglo-Saxon  words,  which  as  a  class 
are  short  and  compact,  are  often  condensed  from  an 


Sanskrit. 

Greek. 

Latin. 

German. 

English 

jalas,  cold 

hard,  and 
hrid,  the  heart 

gridh,  to  desire 

gelu 
.aoJ.-aand          ),^. 

Klip                                      )             "■     ' 

kalt           - 

hertz 

(  begierde 
-^gier 
(  gierig 

chill 
gelid 

heart 

greed 

and 

greedy 

kilt,  to  cover, 

KciOeiv 

hiiten 

coat 

karavah,  a  crow 

Kopv^ 

corvns 

kriiche 

crow 

and 

raven 

laghus,  light 

i\a<pp6i 

■  levis 

leicht 

light 

lib,  to  lick 

\d-)(tiv 

lingere 

leckea 

Hck 

In,  to  separate 

\ovciv 

(■  solvere 
((se  + lucre) 

>■  losen 

loose 

lubh,  to  desire 

\ir;TzaQai 

Clibet  and 
(lubet 

•  lieben 

love 

madhu,  honey 

fiiKi 

mel 

meth 

mead 

mah,  to  prepare 

jinxiivaaQai 

machinari 

machen 

make 

naman,  a  name 

Sifoua 

nomen 

name 

name 

patha,  a  way 

tt'itu; 

passns 

pfad 

path 

su,  to  scatter  about 

act CIV 

serere 

saen 

sow- 

siv,  to  fasten  together 

Kaaavciv  * 

suere 

sew 

smi,  to  laugh 

^ciSin  for  aftei63ii 

smile 

strr,  to  strew 

(XTopivvvvai 

steriiere 

streuen 

strew 

svid,  to  sweat 

ISpovv  (for 
cFiSpovi') 

sudare 

schweissen 

sweat 

svadus,  sweet 

))ivi  (for  (tF'?^vs) 

suavis 

siisz 

sweet 

stabh   and   stubh,   to 

press  together, 
stambh,    to    support, " 
and  stambhas,  a  stem 

oTs'iffciv 
and 

(jTijjtPetv 
to  stamp  on  or 
down 

a  stem,  a 
stump               J 

stipare 

stipes 
stipulus 

stapfeu 
stampfen 

steif 
stumpf 

''staff 
step 
stop 
stamp 
stump 
stubb 
stubble 
stem 

vash,  to  wish 

cv^cadat 

wiinscheu 

wish 

yuyam,  you 

ifie  ti 

vos 

euch 

you 

*  Kaaavcii 

=  *aru-|-!7l'£i»'. 

140  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

original  dissyllabic  form  into  one  monosyllabic  in  Eng- 
lish. In  consequence  of  the  composite  character  of  our 
language,  its  orthography  and  orthoepy  are  found  at 
frequent  variance  from  each  other ;  while  there  are  al- 
most as  many  silent  letters,  not  only  in  the  middle  and 
end  of  words  but  also  when  occurring  initially,  as  in 
French;  and  the  pronunciation  of  the  same  letters* 

*  The  following  letters  are  sometimes  found  silent : 

(1)  In  the  beginning  of  words:  &,  as  in  bdellium:  g.&s  in  gnat: 
h,  as  in  humble  :  7c,  as  in  knee :  m,  as  in  mnemonics :  p,  as  in  psalm. 

(2)  In  the  middle  of  words  :  c,  as  in  slack  :  g,  as  in  daughter  :  Z,  as 
in  balm. 

(3)  In  the  end  of  words:  &,  as  in  dumb  and  lamb :  h,  as  in  ah : 
n.  as  in  condemn  :  y,  as  in  say  compared  with  ay  :  w,  as  in  low. 

Some  consonants  also  have  double  sounds  as  e,  which  is  sounded  as 
iin  cat  and  as  s  in  city  :  g,  hard  in  gun  and  soft,  (as_;)  in  gentle  :  ch, 
like  Jc  in  Christian,  like  tch  in  chance  and  like  sh  in  chemise  :  x,  like 
I'S  in  axe  and  like  z  in  Xenophon ;  and  gh  as  in  though,  laugh,  hough. 

Along  also  what  a  scale  of  variations  does  each  of  the  vowels  run, 
as: 

a,  in  man,  mate,  many,  father,  water,  caboose. 

e,  in  mete,  met,  they,  there,  behold,  inter,  linen. 

i,  in  pine,  pin,  lepine,  bird. 

0,  in  on,  throne,  attorney,  move,  lost. 

u,  in  gun,  astute,  mute,  full,  busy. 

How  various  too  is  the  sound  of  the  different  diphthongs,  as  : 

ai,  in  aisle,  straight,  air,  again,  complaisant. 

o«,  in  slaughter,  laughter,  hautboy. 

ea,  in  lean,  yea,  meant,  hearse,  swear. 

ee,  in  seen,  been,  committee. 

ei,  in  sleight,  feign,  foreign,  heifer,  either,  their. 

ie,  in  die,  believe,  friend. 

00,  in  moon,  soon,  floor,  flood. 

ou,  in  bound,  through,  though,  should,  hough,  cough,  enough. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  141 

especially  vowels,  both  singly  and  in  diphtliongal  combi- 
nations, is  exceedingly  varied.  The  pronunciation  of 
each  word  agreed  doubtless,  at  some  time  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  language,  with  its  spelling :  a  fact  which  will 
serve  well  to  show  what  great  changes  have  occurred, 
within  the  very  essential  elements  of  its  structure. 

In  this  country  especially,  om^  people,  language  and 
institutions  have  been  borne  through  such  an  unsettled 
pioneer  experience,  that  a  strange  unscholarlike,  if  not 
indeed  almost  universal,  indifference  prevails  among 
even  our  educated  men,  to  exactness  and  elegance  in 
the  niceties  of  language.  The  noble  old  English 
tongue  has  assumed,  in  some  large  districts  of  our 
country,  not  only  in  its  orthoepy*  but  also  in  its 
orthography,  a  distinct  American  type,  and  that  not  for 
the  better  but  for  the  worse.  It  is  not  claimed  indeed 
that  in  language,  any  more  than  in  laws,  usages  and 
institutions,  we  should  be  servile  copyists  of  those  in 
the  old  home  across  the  waters,  who  certainly  have  no 
better   right,   and  as  we  are  apt  to  think  no  better 

*  "Witness  the  double  pionunciation  in  England  and  America  of 
such  words,  as  desultory,  leisure,  detail,  azure,  isolate,  demonstrate,  and 
those  words,  in  which  a  occurs  in  the  same  syllable  before  1,  m.  and  st 
as  in  bahn,  calm,  last,  past,  and  also  national,  patriot,  evangelical,  cour- 
teous, fealty,  either  and  neither,  therefore,  fearful.  &c.  As  for  changes 
in  orthography  all  know,  on  what  an  extensive  systematic  scale  W^eb- 
ster  has  undertaken  to  force  them  ujion  the  language.  Happilj',  the 
resistance  to  such  innovations  by  him  proved  too  great ;  and  they  are 
gradually  losing,  most  of  them,  the  little  ground,  which  under  his  in- 
fluential name  they  had  begun  to  acquire. 


142  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

capacity,  to  act  well  for  themselves,  than  we  for  our- 
selves. Nor  do  we  suppose  that  language  can  be  com- 
pressed, either  here  or  there,  within  fixed  arbitrary 
modes  of  manifestation.  Much  less  can  it  be  main- 
tained that  language  should  cease  its  growth ;  as  it 
seems  to  be  an  universal  law  of  all  growths  in  this 
world,  that  their  stoppage  is  the  beginning  of  their 
decay,  which,  stated  more  philosophically,  is  the  begin- 
ning of  their  disappearance  from  the  field  of  view,  in 
order  to  prepare  the  way  for  something  better*  in  their 
place.  America  has  the  right  and  let  her  take  it,  for 
she  surely  wiU,  to  impress  her  o\vn  genius  on  the 
English  tongue.  To  undertake  to  stop  it,  would  be  to 
fight  the  whirlwind.  But  let  not  provincialisms  be 
accepted,  for  they  are  unnecessary,  and  in  whatever 
language  they  appear,  are  abnormal  within  and  un- 
sightly without.  Let  not  etymological  principles,  that 
is,  grammatical,  radical  and  phonetic  analogies,  which 
are  not  merely  the  ornaments  of  a  language,  but  also 
its  very  essence  and  substance,  be  smitten  and  ham- 
mered down,  by  any  rude  barbarian  zeal  for  squaring 
the  forms  of  speech  into  phonographic  correspondence 
with  their  pronunciation.  As  well  attack  the  forms  of 
sculptured  life,  fresh  from  the  hand  of  Phidias  or 
Praxiteles,  and  undertake  to  drive  back  the  Spirit  of 
beauty,  now  radiant  in  every  feature,  within  the  cold 
recesses  of  the  marble  where  it  had  slept  un waked 
before,  hke  Echo,  sweet  nymph  of  forest  dells,  slum- 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  143 

bering  untliouglit  of  in  her  leafy  bovver,  until  some 
friendly  voice  arouses  her  to  answering  words  again. 
Whatever  symbols  of  her  greatness  America  carves 
upon  the  tablets  of  the  English  tongue,  let  them  be  no 
grotesque  specimens  of  careless  haste,  or  proofs  of 
vulgar  sensibility  to  forms  of  low  life,  in  the  world  of 
speech.  Let  her  signatures  rather  be  here  as  else- 
where royal  in  their  aspect :  so  that  any  who  shall 
survey  the  vestiges  of  her  influence,  in  whatever  age  or 
from  whatever  point  of  observation,  shall  be  compelled 
to  say  with  reverence  and  affection,  Incedis  Regina ! 
There  are  those  however  who  undertake  to  justify 
many  and  great  abuses  in  this  hemisphere,  to  the  ori- 
ginal, pure,  historical  Transatlantic  English,  which  we 
have  brought  with  us  to  our  new  home.  The  influence 
also  of  similar  ideas  and  habits  has  run  up,  to  a  lament- 
able degree,  into  the  whole  style  of  our  higher  classical 
education,  as  it  is  generally  conducted.  Prosody,  except 
in  its  rudest  outlines,  is  openly  disregarded  and  pro- 
nounced by  teachers,  wiio  themselves  are  ignorant  of 
its  nice  details,  an  useless  appendage  of  classical  study. 
Greek  accentuation,  similarly,  is  ridiculed  by  the  same 
professional  novices,  who  have  not  mastered  it  them-^ 
selves ;  and  who  declare  that  it  cannot  be  understood, 
or,  that,  if  by  long  close  study  it  should  be  compre- 
hended by  any  one,  the  fruit  would  not  pay  for  the 
labor  bestowed  upon  its  cultivation.  But  no  men, 
more  than  educated  Englishmen  and  Americans,  owe 


144  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

it  to  themselves  and  their  age  and  their  mother- 
tongue,  to  preserve  in  its  sacred  beauty,  unbroken  and 
unspotted  through  all  time,  the  temple  of  their  liter- 
ature and  their  language. 

(3.)  The  Frisic. 

This  is  kindred  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Old 
Norse,  and  yet  separate  from  them  both.  It  was  once 
spoken  on  the  Elbe,  and  along  the  northern  coast  of 
Germany.  It  is  found  now  as  a  living  language,  only 
in  a  few  scattered  districts  in  the  Netherlands  ;  and  it 
is  alive  there  only  in  the  lips  of  men  and  not  in  their 
books,  and  so  finds  shelter  only  among  the  rude  un- 
educated masses.  The  Dutch  has  entirely  displaced  its 
words,  as  current  coin,  by  its  own  as  having  a  far 
higher  value. 

(4.)  The  Low  Dutch. 

(a)    The  Netherlandish. 

These  include  the  Flemish  and  Dutch  languages. 
The  native  home  of  the  Flemish  language  is  Belgium. 
As  the  French  is  the  court-lano;ua2;e  of  Belorium, 
and  contains  in  itself  great  elements  of  vitality  and 
wonderful  tendencies  to  diffusion,  wherever  it  once 
obtains  a  permanent  lodgment,  the  Flemish  is  in 
such  unfavorable  contact  with  it  rapidly  waning  away, 
and  will  probably  ere  long  retain  only  the  name  of 
having  been  once  cherished,  as  a  household  treasure,  by 
its  OAvn  people.  Happily  however,  for  dead  languages 
like  depopulated  countries  are  full  of  mournful  asso- 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  145 

ciations,  the  Memisli  language  is  a  separate  language 
from  the  Dutch,  almost  wholly  in  its  orthography 
alone.  As,  therefore,  they  are  in  their  real  substantive 
essence  alike  and  the  words  of  the  two  languages  are 
themselves  the  same,  its  spirit  will  still  survive,  when  it 
has  resigned  its  breath,  in  that  fine  rich  Dutch  lan- 
guage, of  whose  literature  and  of  whose  genius,  as 
well  as  of  the  history  of  whose  people  although  so 
strongly  connected  with  our  own,  it  is  no  praise  to  us, 
that  we  are  so  profoundly  ignorant. 

(b)  The  Saxon. 

This  is  a  modern  title  of  convenience,  for  describing 
the  staple  or  material  of  several  kindred  dialects,  or 
rather  different  forms  or  stages  of  the  same  dialect, 
called  the  old  Saxon,  the  Middle  Low  German  and  the 
flat  or  vulgar  German  (Plattdeutsch).  The  old  Saxon 
was  formerly  spoken  in  the  north  of  Germany.  The 
Heliand,  a  poem  written  in  the  ninth  century,  is 
the  only  relic  now  left  of  it,  possessing  any  value.  It 
is  a  harmony  of  the  gospels  in  mere*  alliterative  metre. 
The  different  dialects  included  under  the  old  Saxon, 
receive  in  their  bare  enumeration  all  the  honor  that 
they  deserve.  They  contain  in  them  nothing  that 
speaks  of  an  heroic  past  or  of  a  vitalized  present. 

2.  The  High  German. 

The  etymology  of  the  word,  German,  a  name  given 

*  A  brief  but  good  specimen  of  it  may  be  found  in  Latham,  on  the 
English  Language,  pp.  2G — 7.     Third  edition. 


146  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

to  the  people  who  bear  it,  by  other  nations  and  not  by 
themselves,  is  yet  a  mooted  question.  Numerous  have 
been  the  guesses  made  concerning  it.  Some  have 
derived  it  from  Kerman  in  Persia,  now  Caramania. 
But  whatever  affinities  the  German  may  have  with  the 
Persian,  it  is  yet  true  that  the  Germans  did  not  call 
themselves  by  this  name,  and  so  could  not  have  carried 
it  with  them,  from  the  place  of  their  origin.  Others 
have  derived  it  from  the  Latin  germanus  (Eng.  germain) 
kindred  or  cognate  :  a  mere  accidental  resemblance  in 
form,  wdth  no  historical  connection  in  sense;  while 
others  maintain  that  it  originated  in  gher  (French 
guerre,  Spanish  gueiTa)  war,  and  mann,  man ;  and 
others  still  find  it  in  the  vernacular  Irman  or  Erman. 
It  is,  on  the  contrary,  in  all  probability  a  Celtic  word, 
as  Leo  has  recently  suggested,  derived  from  gairraean 
a  shout  or  war-cry,  formed  from  gair  to  cry.*  The 
name  Deutsch,  by  which  the  Gennans  denominate 
themselves,  and  to  which  also  the  name  Teutones  is 
aUied,  is  derived  from  the  Gothic  thiudisko  (Gr. 
edviyico^),  from  thiuda  {tO-voz)  a  nation,  and  answers 
therefore  to  our  word  Gentile. 

Like  the  Latin,  the  German  languages  supply  the 
want  of  separate  tense-suffixes,  by  auxiliary  verbs.  The 
only  tenses  formed  on  the  simple  verb-stem,  are  the 
present  and  imperfect.     The  Gothic  retained  the  dual* 

*  So  in  Homer  a  great  warrior  is  often  described  as  aya&os  0or)v, 
good  in  shouting ;  which  is  an  essential  part  of  war  with  a  savage. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  147 

and  had  also  reduplicated  forms ;  but  these  are  so  mu- 
tilated in  the  modern  Germanic  tongues,  as  not  to  be 
discoverable  except  by  comparison. 

Grimm  states  four  pomts  of  discrimination,  by  which 
the  German  family  of  languages  is  individuahzed  by  it- 
self: 

(1.)  The  ablaut,  or  change  of  the  radical  vowel,  in 
the  conjugation-forms  of  the  verb. 

(2.)  The  lautverschiebung,  or  change  of  sounds 
and  letters  from  one  point  to  another  on  the  same 
scale. 

(3.)  The  weak  conjugation  of  the  verb. 

(4.)  The  strong  conjugation. 

The  High  German  has  had  three  eras  of  periodic 
growth,  in  respect  to  the  styles  of  its  forms.  1.  That 
of  the  Old  High  German,  prevailing  from  the  seventh 
to  the  eleventh  century.  2.  That  of  the  Middle  High 
Gennan,  from  the  eleventh  centmy  to  Luther's  day. 
The  Niebelungen,  the  great  German  epic  of  ancient 
times,  was  prepared  in  the  form  in  which  we  find  it, 
somewhere  about  the  year  1200.  It  contains  how- 
ever scraps  of  poetry,  that  probably  date  back  as  far 
as  Charlemagne,  two  hundred  years  earlier  (1000  a.  d.). 
This  is  the  Iliad  of  the  Germanic  tribes,  written  in  the 
days  of  chivalry.  Its  heroes  are  those  of  the  fifth  and 
sixth  centuries,  and  of  a  Christian  type ;  and  it  is  full 
of  old  traditions  and  marvels.  3.  The  New  Hi2:h  Ger- 
man,  or  what  we  call  the  present  classic  German,  born 


148  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

in  its  full  complete  state  at  the  Reformation,  and  of  it. 
liUtlier  was  its  foster-father.     Its  words  took  their  fixed 
and  final  form  in  his  earnest,  glowing,  scholarly  mind, 
and  by  his  pen  were  "  engraven  in  the  rock  forever," 
[n  his  noble  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  he  not  only 
scattered  everywhere  the  seeds  of  divine  truth  but  pop- 
ularized also  the  usage  of  his  mother  tongue,  in  richer, 
deeper,  stronger  forms,  than  ever  before ;  and  by  that 
translation,  still  recognized  with  national  pride  as  the 
standard  version  of  the  Scriptures,  as  well  as  by  the 
sweet  hymnology  that  has  flowered  forth  from  its  pro- 
Ufic  stem  around  the  walls  of  the  sanctuary,  the  lan- 
guage has  been  preserved  in  the  state  in  which  he  found 
and  used  it,  with  sacred  care.     Throughout  all  the 
stages  of  its  historic  development,  the  High  German 
has  been  full  of  treasures,  which  the  world  has  not  been 
willing  to  forget.     It  is  now,  for  both  sesthetical  and 
philosophical  uses,  more  akin  in  its  inward  and  subtle 
affinities  to  the  Greek,  than  any  other  living  language. 
It  has  a  sort   of  divine  aura  around  and  within  it. 
And  if  to  one,  not  born  in  its  presence  or  brought  up 
under  its  power,  who  looks  upon  it  from  without  with 
cool,  critical  survey,  its  channs  seem  so  exquisite,  even 
when  compared  with  those  of  the  other  great  languages 
of  the  world  ;  how  inspiring  must  be  its  influence  on 
those,  who  from  childhood  have  been  taught  to  love  it 
as  their  mother  tongue  :  all  whose  thoughts  and  feel- 
ings, aU  whose  wonder,  joy  and  sorrow  and  aU  whose 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  149 

loves  and  hopes  and  longings,  for  this  world  and  the 
next,  have  been  breathed  from  the  first  through  its 
living  chords  !    In  original,  constant  productiveness  and 
the  capacity  for  an  ever-enlarging  home-growth  of  its 
own,  and  that  of  the  most  homogeneous  character,  no 
modern  language  equals  it ;  and  in  this  respect  as  in  so 
many  others,  some  of  them  more  easily  felt  than  de- 
scribed, it  resembles  the  Greek.     There  is  no  modern 
tongue,  which  a  mind  thoroughly  English  in  its  type 
and  tone,  can  so  profitably  receive  into  all  its  elements 
of  thought  and  growth,  as  the  German.     It  has  great 
capacity  for  expressing  nice  discriminations  and  poeti- 
cal conceptions ;  and  to  us  of  other  nations,  whose  lan- 
guages are  the  mere  alluvial  deposits  of  those  of  elder 
days :  having  none  of  the  interior  principles  of  sponta- 
neous organic  growth,  that  the  German  like  the  Greek 
possesses,  taking  on  new  forms  and  combinations  as 
used  by  each  new  age  and  even  by  each  new  mind  that 
assumes  to  itself  the  privilege  of  making  them,  as  the 
right  is  universally  conceded :  it  seems  dehghtful  indeed 
to  come  within  the  atmosphere  and  aroma  of  its  fresh 
blossoming  fulness  of  life.     The  mind  feels,  when  sur- 
rounded everywhere  by  the  living  stir  of  its  agencies 
and  energies,  joyously  and  strangely  elastic  in  its  moods : 
it  has  an  instinct  to  climb  and  vault  and  shake  off 
every  sense  of  weakness,  as  when,  in  tender  sympathy 
with  nature,  it  stands  and  gazes  on  the  first  full  out- 
burst of  new  life  and  beauty  in  the  spring.     The  heart 


150  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

is  moved  amid  the  splendors  of  its  poetry,  as  it  some- 
times is  mider  the  power  of  some  wild  witching  melody, 
which  makes  the  soul  feel,  as  if  deep  within  itself  there 
were  another  self,  to  which  few  things  in  this  world  had 
the  power  to  make  themselves  heard  or  seen.  In 
many-sidedness  the  German  is  not  at  all  equal  to  the 
English.  Its  connections  with  the  Latin  are  far  less 
numerous:  the  Greek  element  does  not  prevail  so  ex- 
tensively in  it;  nor  have  the  modern  languages  im- 
pressed their  form  and  influence  upon  it,  as  upon  the 
English.  The  German  has  indeed,  throughout,  fewer 
admixtiu-es  of  other  languages  in  it,  than  any  other 
European  tongue,  while  the  EngHsh  has  more  than  any 
other.  While  therefore  in  English  almost  all  words 
have  been  first  distilled  through  the  alembic  of  the 
Greek,  Latin,  Gothic,  Gemian,  Erench,  Italian  or  Span- 
ish mind;  in  German,  with  few  exceptions,  they  all 
claim  one  common  origin  and  bear  in  them  the  mark 
of  a  distinct  national  individuality.  German  literature 
is  full  of  strength  and  beauty,  to  a  degree  even  of  almost 
Asiatic  luxuriance.  The  more  recent  type,  however,  of 
the  German  mind  is  that  of  profound  scholarship.  The 
Germans  are  the  self-chosen  and  world-accepted  miners 
of  the  realms  of  science,  and  obtain  the  pure  ore  of 
knowledge,  by  willing,  patient  delving  after  it ;  which 
other  nations  convert  into  all  the  forms  of  intellectual 
commerce  for  the  world's  good.  Instead  of  the  sense 
of  nationality,  which  other  nations  cherish  so  warmly 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  151 

and  of  whicli  their  poets  sing  in  songs  of  their  father- 
land, as  only  those  can  sing  who  have  lost  a  once  dear 
treasure  :  a  sense,  vrhich,  by  their  minute  division  into 
kingdoms  and  duchies,  has  been  destroyed  among 
them :  they  possess  a  broad  cosmopolitan  taste  and 
consciousness,  and  have  accordingly  undertaken  to  be 
the  stewards  of  the  world's  intellectual  riches,  and  pur- 
veyors to  its  mental  wants. 

VI.  The  Cehic. 

This  class  of  languages  has  not  been  appreciated 
until  very  recently,  as  having  the  connections,  which 
it  really  does  possess,  with  the  great  Indo-Em'opean 
family.  To  Dr.  Prichard,  that  fine  EngHsh  investiga- 
tor into  the  natui'al  history  of  man  and  into  ethnology, 
is  due  the  honor  of  having  first  discovered  their  true 
connection  with  it.  It  was  ingeniously  guessed  at  the 
outset  by  Sir  William  Jones,  to  be  one  of  the  Indo- 
European  family.  But,  as  guesses  are  as  likely  to  be 
false  as  true  and  have  as  such  no  science  or  substance 
in  them,  the  merit  of  the  discovery  is  as  great,  as  if  no 
such  siu-mise  had  been  previously  made;  since,  in 
Prichard's  day,  it  had  lost  all  its  qualities  of  value, 
whether  authoritative  or  suggestive.  Bunsen  claims, 
as  has  been  stated,  that  the  place  for  the  Celtic,  in  the 
history  of  languages,  lies  midway  between  the  Old 
Egyptian,  which  he  regards  as  the  most  primeval  lan- 
guage yet  discovered,  and  the  Sanskrit :  "  The  Cel- 
tic," as  he  claims,   "never  havinc^    had  the  Sanskrit 


152  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

development;  so  that,  while  it  exhibits  a  systematic 
affinity  with  it  in  some  respects,  it  shows  also  iu  others 
a  manifest  estrangement  from  it."  The  Old  Egyptian, 
it  is  conceded,  exhibits  many  inward  resemblances  to 
it  in  several  respects ;  and  on  any  and  every  view,  the 
Old  Egyptian  of  the  Semitic  family,  and  the  Sanskrit 
and  Celtic  not  of  that  family,  point  in  many  of  their 
common  characteristics  to  a  possible  unity,  at  least,  in 
one  ultimate  origin ;  and  it  is  not  at  present  absolutely 
certain,  in  what  way  we  should  state  the  true  relative 
order  of  their  sequence. 

It  is  manifest  that  the  Celts  led  the  van  of  occi- 
dental emigration  through  the  wilderness  of  primeval 
Europe,  and  spread  over  Gaul,  Switzerland,  Germany, 
Spain  and  Britain.  The  greater  part  of  Europe  in- 
deed was  inhabited  in  its  earliest  historic  period,  by 
different  tribes  of  Celts.  They  were  found  however 
by  the  races  that  followed  in  their  train,  most  numer- 
ously in  Germany,  Erance,  Spain  and  Great  Britain  ; 
while  traces  were  found  of  them  also  even  in  Greece, 
Illyria  and  Italy.  They  had  no  letters  and  in  fact 
despised  them,  as  unworthy  of  a  warlike  people ;  and 
therefore  had  no  way  of  preseiTing  their  laws  or  his- 
tory or  scanty  Hterature,  except  to  deposit  them  in  the 
archives  of  their  own  hearts.  Hence  they  undertook 
to  hand  them  down,  from  one  generation  to  another 
by  song.  Their  poets  they  called  bards  :  a  profession 
that  included  all  who  felt  moved  by  any  strange  wild 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  153 

impulse  witliin  them,  to  an  earnest  utterance  of  them- 
selves to  others ;  and  its  ideal  was  best  realized  in  a 
sort  of  native  spontaneous  combination  of  the  poet, 
the  musical  composer  and  the  practical  singer,  in  one 
and  the  same  person.  Many  such  poets  there  were 
among  them,  in  the  course  of  those  long  centuries  so 
voiceless  now  to  us ;  and  their  poems  were  sweet,  like 
the  carols  of  summer  birds,  to  the  hearts  of  those 
wandering  tribes.  The  ancient  Druids,  the  instructors 
of  Celtic  youth,  sometimes  devoted  many  years  to 
teaching  them  those  wild  native  songs ;  and  the  primi- 
tive Celts  were  justly  distinguished,  as  having  been 
addicted  beyond  most  rude  early  races  to  poetry ;  and 
bards  were  held  in  high  honor,  both  among  the  primi- 
tive Gauls  and  Britons. 

The  chief  monument  of  ancient  Celtic  verse,  still 
left  standing  on  the  earth,  is  that  of  Ossian ;  which  is 
now  generally  allowed  by  those  best  acquainted  with 
Gaelic  literature,  to  be  genuine.  He  was  indeed,  as 
he  is  commonly  called,  "  the  prince  of  Scottish  bards." 
Certainly,  if  Macpherson  could  himself  write  such  a 
poem,  so  noble  in  itself  and  so  wonderfully  set,  in  re- 
spect to  its  ideas  and  all  their  surroundings  of  men 
and  manners,  in  the  age  to  which  it  pretended  to  be- 
long, he  would  have  no  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  ac- 
knowledging its  authorship,  and  no  motive  to  bestow 
the  honor  gratuitously  upon  another  of  whom  nothing 
was  known  but  his  name.     To  one  of  the  Wolfe-school 


154  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

of  doubters,  who  can  make  himself  beUeve  that  Homer 
is  a  name  for  a  class  of  giant-geniuses,  instead  of  one 
alone,  and  so  that  the  Iliad  is  a  fortuitous  concourse 
of  many  poems  from  several  authors,  no  evidence 
could  probably  ever  suffice  to  assure  him  of  its  gen- 
uineness. But  to  one  who  feels  an  argument,  the 
proof  seems  sufficient  for  the  reasonable  conviction, 
that  Ossian  really  made  the  poem,  which  Macpherson 
only  translated. 

The  Celtic  possesses  now  but  a  sporadic  existence. 
Its  present  remains  are  the  Kymric  or  'Welsh,  and  the 
Gaehc,  the  native  tongue  of  the  Scotch  Highlanders,  and 
the  Erse  or  native  Irish ;  in  which,  especially  the  last, 
we  have  modern  specimens  of  the  most  ancient  type 
of  languages  of  this  stock.  The  Celtic  departs  most 
in  the  style  of  its  poems,  of  all  the  languages  hitherto 
enumerated,  from  the  primeval  aspects  of  words  as 
found  in  the  Sanskrit.  The  institutions  that  the  Celts 
founded  and  the  very  vocabulary  that  they  used,  were 
early  overborne  by  Roman  conquests,  ideas  and  in- 
fluences. They  nowhere  maintained  a  firm  foothold, 
against  the  influx  of  the  races  that  succeeded  them, 
except  at  the  most  advanced  outposts  of  the  continent : 
whence  there  was  no  region  beyond  into  which  they 
could  be  driven  except  the  sea.  That  German  element 
also  in  modern  society,  which  has  so  largely  modified 
aU  the  aspects  of  the  civilized  world,  came  in  ere  long 
upon  them  with  all  its  force,  and  overlaid  them  with 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  155 

its  owTi  peculiar  character.  And  yet  the  Celtic  lias 
left  at  the  same  time  its  manifest  impress  upon  the 
German;  which,  having  existed  geographically  mid- 
way between  the  Celtic  and  Slavonic  nations,  has  also 
partaken  of  their  characteristics  mutually  but  much 
more  of  the  Celtic  than  of  the  Slavonic.  In  the  Teu- 
tonic languages  generally,  there  is  found  a  greater  mix- 
tm'e  of  Celtic  words,  than  in  any  other  class  of  lan- 
guages. The  Teutonic  races  followed  more  exactly  in 
the  track  of  the  Celts  receding  before  them,  than  any 
others.  The  German  and  Celtic  languages  have  like- 
wise, aside  from  their  connnon  inheritance  of  the  same 
great  original  staple  of  Indo-European  words,  many 
words  that  they  have  directly  borrowed  each  of  them 
from  the  other.  It  is  not  therefore  always  easy :  so 
changed  are  words  often  in  passing  from  one  language 
to  another,  whether  passing  early  or  late  in  their  his- 
tory :  to  say,  whether  the  correspondences  which  are 
found  are  in  some  cases  original  or  derived. 

The  Celtic  is  spoken  still,  in  the  central  and  south- 
ern parts  of  Ireland,  in  the  north-western  parts  of 
Scotland,  in  the  Hebrides  and  the  islands  between 
England  and  Ireland  and  also  in  Wales,  and  on  the 
continent  in  Brittany.  The  Celts  are  aU  now  under 
the  British  yoke,  except  those  living  in  Brittany  over 
whom  Erance  rules.  And,  as  they  form  in  their  geo- 
graphical and  historical  position  alike,  the  advanced 
guard  of  all  the  nations  of  Europe,  it  is  both  natural 
and  logical  to  conclude  that  if  of  Arian  origin,  as  is 


156  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

probable,  and  not  of  an  antecedent  date,  tliey  consti- 
tute the  first  cleavage  from  the  great  primary  elemental 
mass  of  Indo-Ehiropean  mind.  Not  only  does  the 
Celtic  differ  more  from  the  Sanskrit,  than  any  of  the 
other  languages  of  the  Arian  family,  but  it  is  also  the 
least  complete  and  mature  of  them  all,  in  its  OAvn  in- 
dividual features.  The  Celts  never  invented  any  alpha- 
bet for  themselves,  and  never  borrowed  one  for  their 
own  separate  use,  as  did  the  Greeks  from  the  Phceni- 
cians,  from  any  other  people. 

The  Celtic  *  family  includes, 

1st.  The  Kymric.f 

*  This  is  Diefenbach's  classification  of  them.  He  is  one  of  the  most 
recent  investigators  in  this  field,  and  is  one  of  the  highest  of  all  author- 
ities in,  philology :  like  Bopp,  Pott,  and  the  Brothers  Grimm  among 
the  elder  lights  in  this  field,  and  Schleicher,  Kuhn,  Curtius  and 
Aufrecht  among  its  younger  leaders. 

t  Celtic  Correspondences. 
Sanskrit.         Greek.  Latin.  Gotliic.  Celtic.  English. 

rWelsh         "^ 
bhu,tobe      ,C.  fui  it°-'^^-)]S3,  [be 

Lbi  J 

i     ,   ,  s        (  oSov;  dens  J 

^".f^fi''      \  stem  stem  >•  tunthu  dant  tooth 

^*°°"^       /o^.^^  dent  ) 

hanu(s), 

the  ja-R 

cf.  ganda 

sara, 
md 
water 


anu(s),        )        ^ 

the  jaw.      >  yim"  gena  kinnus  genau  chin 

f.  ganda     ) 

r  Irish  ~] 

andsalan,    VuAf  sal  ^  ix^^^°,  Isalt 


a,  salt     J 
i  salan,    J-uAi 
ater        ) 


]  Welsh 
(_  halen 


padafs)         (""'^  P^^  ) 

afoot         -;Stem  stem  V  fotu  ped  foot 

(-00  ped  3 

l^eap 
nis'a,  night     iC^  nox  nochd  nif^ht 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN  LANGUAGES.  157 

2d.  The  Gadlielic. 

1st.  Under  tlie  Kymric  are  included 

(1)  The  Welsh. 

(2)  The  Cornish,  which  v/as  confined  to  Cornwall, 
and  ceased  to  be  a  living  language  about  sixty  years 
ago. 

(3)  The  Low-Breton  or  Armorican,  which  prevails 
in  French  Brittany.  This  whole  class  of  Kymric  lan- 
guages is  separated  very  distinctly  from  the  kindred 
Gadhelic;  and  they  are  sometimes  denominated  also 
the  Britannic  dialects. 

2d.  Under  the  Gadhelic  are  included  also  various 
dialects.  Gadhelic  is  formed,  as  Pictet  thinks,  from 
gaedel  and  gaodheal,  meaning  hero,  from  gaodaim  to 
rob,  or  plunder :  a  hero  and  a  robber  being  among 
lawless  men  synonymous.  This  derivation  is  prefer- 
able to  that  of  Charles  Meyer,  who  regards  Gadhel, 
Gael  and  Gallus,  as  all  derived  from  the  old  Celtic  root 
gwydh  to  follow,  and  so  pointing  to  the  nomadic  hab- 
its of  the  primitive  Celts,  or  their  great  perpetual  ten- 
dency to  clanships. 

(1)  The  Gaelic  proper,  or  High  Scotch. 

(2)  The  Irish  or  Erse. 

In  the  words  Eirinn,*  Erin  and  Ireland  Pictet 

t  The  flexion  of  the  word  Eirinn  is  in  Irish  as  follows : 
Nom.  Eire  also  Ere. 
Gen.  Eireann,  Eirenn  and  Erenn. 
Dat.  Eirinn,  Erinn  and  Eiren. 
Ace.  Eire. 
The  classical  forms  of  the  name  as  'ifpf/r,  'ifpi/jj,  HovfpuUi,  Hibernia 


158  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

claims,  notwithstanding  JPott's  hasty  laughter  at  pre- 
vious etymologists  for  having  broached  such  an  idea, 
that  we  see  the  old  family  name  Iran  or  Arii,  still  fly- 
ing on  the  flagstaff  of  one  great  branch  of  the  Celts, 
who  first  left  their  common  home.  The  Irish  language 
possesses,  beyond  any  other  of  the  Celtic  languages, 
the  most  ancient  forms  of  words.  What  the  Germans 
call  the  umlaut,*  prevails  here  abundantly. 

(3)  The  Manx,  or  that  spoken  in  the  isle  of  Man. 

In  the  Celtic  declension  of  the  verb,  the  three  per- 
sons are  expressed  sometimes  by  the  personal  pronouns, 
combined  as  suflixes  with  the  verb-stem,  as  in  the 
Sanskrit  and  also  in  mutilated  forms  in  the  other  Indo- 
European  languages ;  and  sometimes,  as  in  English,  by 
the  separate  use  of  the  pronouns  before  the  verb.  A 
declension  of  the  noun  cannot  be  said  to  exist  at  all, 
in  some  of  the  languages  of  this  family,  as  the  Welsh 
and  Low  Breton.  The  relations  of  words  to  others  in 
a  sentence,  are  expressed  by  changes  in  their  initial 

&c.  are  composite.  Thus  Hibernia,  Pictet  regards  as  compounded  of 
Ibh  the  land,  and  Erna  of  the  Erins  ;  and  so  in  the  Greek  form  hovepvla, 
the  syllable  ov  is  a  softening  of  the  Irish  bh,  or  Latin  b  in  Hibernia ; 
and  the  form  hevpfj  is  for  'lFepi'17.  The  stem  ibh  may  be  connected,  he 
thinks,  with  the  Sanskrit  ibhj-a  wealthy,  opulent,  cf.  Gr.  'icfuos  strong, 
mighty :  so  that  the  stem  of  the  word  Iren  or  Irish  would  mean  the 
good,  the  brave.  Pictet's  article  is  interesting,  and  may  be  found  in 
Kuhn's  Beitrilge  zur  Sprachforschnng,  pp.  81 — 99. 

*  This  means  a  softening  of  a  radical  vowel  of  a  word,  into  an  e 
sound,  to  denote  a  difference  of  person  in  a  noun,  or  of  tense  in  a 
verb  ;  as  in  our  words  brother  and  brethren,  foot  and  feet,  tooth  and 
teeth,  was  and  were. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES. 


159 


parts,  and  those  changes  are  phonetically  adapted  to  the 
terminal  characteristics  of  the  words  preceding  them: 
the  direction  taken  by  the  law  of  assimilation  in  this 
family  of  languages,  being  exactly  opposite  to  that, 
taken  in  the  other  branches  of  the  Indo-European 
family. 

In  the  Celtic  languages,  constant  modifications  are 
made  by  Avords  placed  in  combination,  one  of  the  other, 
like  those  denominated  Sandhi  in  Sanskrit.  Conso- 
nantal mutations  are  much  more  varied  in  Welsh  than 
in  the  Irish;  and  words  beginning  with  vowels  are 
subject  also  in  Welsh  to  changes,  similar  to  those  made 
by  Guna  in  Sanskrit.  A  comparison  of  the  Nmiierals 
in  Welsh  and  Irish  with  those  in  Sanskrit  is  worthy  of 
attention. 


Welsh. 

Irish. 

Sanskrit. 

1. 

un 

aen 

aika 

2. 

dau  and      ) 

1 

da 

^      dwi 
}      dwau 

dwy          ] 

1 

do 

3. 

tri  and  tair 

tri 

tri 

4. 

pedwar  and 
pedair 

\ 

keathair 

chatur 

5. 

pump 

kuig 

panchan 

6. 

chwech 

se 

shash 

7. 

saitli 

secht 

saptan 

8. 

wyth 

ocht 

aslitau 

9. 

naw 

noi 

navan 

[0. 

dee. 

deich 

dasan 

The  Welsh  and  ^olic  Greek  make  nearly  the  same 
kind  of  consonantal  substitutions :  as  p  (.t)  for  San- 
skrit ch  as  in  Tiavrt,  Mo\.  ntf-irct,  Welsh  pump,  Sansk. 


160  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

panclian ;  and  the  gutturals  c,  g,  k  for  sh  and  s  as 
<56;^«;  Welsh  deg;  Sansk.  dasan;  and  kixooi:  Welsh 
ugain :  Sansk.  vins'ati. 

Snuilarly  the  Latin  and  the  Erse  are  quite  alike 
in  their  consonantal  phenomena.  They  neither  of  them 
adopt  the  p  of  the  Welsh  and  jiEolic  Greek,  but  have  c 
or  q  instead  of  it,  as  in  Latin  quatuor,  Erse  keathair, 
four :  Sansk,  cliatur :  Welsh  pedwar  :  Gr.  r&TraQtg, 
Mo[.  TviouQtQ  ;  and  so  quinque  (pronounced  originally 
kinke) :  Erse  kuig,  compared  with  the  Greek  and 
Welsh  as  above.  The  Teutonic  dialects  agree  generally 
more  with  the  Welsh  and  vEolic  Greek,  than  with  the 
Latin  and  Erse.  A  few  specimens  of  Erse  and  Welsh 
correspondents  with  the  Sanskrit  equivalent  will  make 
their  diflPerences  still  more  apparent. 


Sanskrit. 

Erse. 

Welsh. 

jani,  a  woman 

gean, 

virah,  a  hero 

fear 

matri,  a  mother 

mathair 

nabhah,  aether 

neav 

n^v 

dhara,  earth 

daiar 

ukshan,  an  ox 

agh 

yeh 

druh,  a  tree 

dair 

derw 

danta(s),  a  tooth 

dant 

dvar,  a  door 

dor 

mri,  to  die 

marbh 

marw 

vid,  to  know 

fis  (knowledge) 

wydha  (to  learn) 

We  have  now  passed  in  review  the  different  fam- 
ilies of  the  historical  languages  of  the  world,  ii^  as  rapid 
a  manner,  as  justice  to  their  several  degrees  of  excel- 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  161   . 

lence  and  honor  would  allow.     The  original  Indo-Eu- 
ropean language,  so  called  from  its  many  Asiatic  and 
European  descendants,  whose  names,  for  want  of  one 
more  apposite,  are  united  in  it ;  by  whatever  name  it 
was  called  by  those  who  spoke  it,  before  they  called 
themselves  Arians,  and  wherever  they  lived  under  the 
power  of  those  energetic  influences,  which  the  history 
of  the  languages  descended  from  it  shows  it  to  have 
possessed,  must  have  been  one  of  great  splendor  within 
and  without.     And,  as  the  reflex  influence  of  a  kingly 
language  is  one  of  the  strongest  of  all  stimulating  in- 
fluences that  a  nation  can  ever  feel,  in  the  mode  of  its 
development,  wondrous  indeed   must   have   been   its 
adaptations,  for  the  purposes  of  an  ever-growing  men- 
tal life   and  commerce  among  men.     In  it  were  the 
germs  of  most  of  the  many  great  languages,  that  have 
since  come  and  gone  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.    What- 
ever words  have  been  really  added  to  the  original  stock, 
except  in  the  way  of  new  combinations  of  words  already 
belonging  to  it,  must  have  been  wholly  or  chiefly  ono- 
matopoetic;  in   which,   as  in   the   words   hiss,   crash, 
splash,  murmur,  men  have  simply  uttered  from  their 
own  tongues,  by  way  of  imitation,  the  same  sounds 
which  they  had  already  heard  in  nature. 

It  is  worth  the  while,  in  conclusion,  to  consider  even 
though  in  a  brief  manner,  the  lessons  which  are  taught 
us  by  historical  philology.     They  are  these  : 

1.  The  Unity  of  the  race. 


162  HISTOllICAL    SKETCH    OF 

Nations  and  tribes  that  have  no  features  physical, 
intellectual  or  spiritual  in  common,  are  yet  found,  by 
a  comparison  of  their  languages,  to  be  bound  closely  to- 
gether in  the  bonds  of  a  common  primeval  brotherhood. 
Every  new  discovery  in  philology  reveals  new  aild 
wider  connections  between  them,  and  harmonizes  the 
voice  of  history  with  that  of  the  Scriptures  :  just  as  in 
geology  each  new  advance  of  the  science  serves  to  prove 
still  more  fully,  that  the  genesis  of  nature  was  exactly 
the  same  as  the  Genesis  of  Revelation, 

2,  The  greatly  determining  influence  in  man's  his- 
tory of  the  material,  passive  and  receptive  side  of  his 
nature.  Human  language  wonderfully  exhibits  the 
play  of  physical  influences  upon  us,  in  respect  to  our 
speech  aixl  our  ideas,  om-  experience  and  our  employ- 
ment, our  pleasure  and  pain,  our  social  state  and  our 
social  progress.  It  almost  says,  that  man  is  the  sport 
of  circumstances.  This  it  would  say  absolutely,  Avere 
it  not  for  the  counteractive  power  of  that  gentle  but 
ever-active  providence  of  God,  which,  while  not  distm'b- 
ing  at  all  the  working  of  the  most  delicate,  minute,  un- 
guarded elements  of  free  agency  in  our  nature,  yet 
always  broods  over  each  individual,  to  influence  him  to 
the  best  possible  improvement  of  his  nature ;  and  to 
combine  the  actual  results  of  his  untrammelled  choice 
and  action,  in  harmony  with  that  of  every  other  one,  in 
the  production  of  the  greatest  possible  amount  of  good 
to  all.     There  is  thus  a  true  materialism  which  phi- 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  103 

losophy  must  recognize,  as  one  of  the  fundamental 
bases  of  all  her  theories  of  man,  whether  viewed  indi- 
vidually or  collectively.  Not  more  truly  is  man  himself 
a  compound  being,  composed  of  body  and  soul,  or  the 
body  itself  a  duality  in  the  details  of  its  structure,  than 
human  experience  and  human  development  are  two- 
sided,  active  and  passive,  material  and  spiritual.  With- 
out doubt,  as  men  come  to  be  more  and  more  under  the 
constant  action  of  mental  and  moral  forces,  by  the  aU- 
penetrating  and  widely-diffused  power  of  Christianity, 
the  sphere  of  chmatic  influences  will  be  greatly  abridged 
and  their  potency  much  impaired.  Similarity  of  religion 
and  of  education  will  induce,  in  very  different  latitudes, 
similarity  of  views,  feelings  and  habits.  The  mind  was 
made  to  rule  the  body  and  to  have  dominion,  not  only 
over  its  activities  and  energies,  but  also  over  its  ever- 
changing  states  and  moods.  An  intellect  and  a  heart 
set  on  fire  of  Heaven  and  glowing  with  a  spirit  of  high 
service  to  God  and  man,  are  adequate  to  any  triumphs 
over  the  infirmities  of  the  flesh,  or  the  power  of  matter 
and  of  time.  And  yet,  in  that  golden  age  of  the  fu- 
ture, in  which  Heaven  and  Earth  are  to  be  wedded  to 
each  other  in  one  prolonged  and  happy  union,  each 
zone  wiU  still  have  its  different  air  and  sky  as  now,  its 
different  fields  and  floods,  its  different  advantages  and 
defects,  and  all  its  wide  variety  of  sights  by  day  and  of 
voices  by  night.  And,  when  we  remember  how  much 
more  God  undertakes  to  educate  the  mass  of  men,  by 


164  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

the  beauty  of  nature  than  by  any  other  apphance  even 
revelation  itself,  except  the  overflowing  bounty  of  his 
providence,  it  is  natural  to  believe,  that  in  no  coming 
Age  of  the  world  will  objective  influences  cease  to  mould, 
/ery  greatly,  the  growths  and  manifestations  of  human 
character  and  of  human  society.  In  the  past,  however, 
most  nations,  even  those  of  the  highest  development, 
have  used,  and  indeed  possessed  but  to  a  very  limited 
degree  in  their  cultm-e,  the  full  power  of  the  light  that 
Christianity  contains  in  itself  for  the  illumination  of 
mankind,  or  of  its  heat  to  Avann  their  sluggish  natures 
into  that  generous  divine  growth  of  which  they  are  ca- 
pable. In  the  wild  neglected  state  of  Heathen  hfe,  in 
which  as  the  very  word  itself  implies,  hmnan  society  is 
one  vast  moral  heath,  physical  influences  are  all-power- 
ful, if  not  always  upon  the  heart  yet  upon  the  tempera- 
ment, as  also  upon  the  experience,  employment  and 
character,  of  those  who  have  no  elements  of  thought, 
feeling  or  purpose  competent  to  resist  the  force  of  ex- 
ternal agencies  upon  them,  much  less  any  transforming 
power  within,  that  can  make  all  things  minister  to  their 
joy  and  work  together  for  their  good. 

3.  The  low  degree  of  man's  inventive  power. 

The  very  word  inventive  indicates  in  its  etymology, 
that  he  stumbles  by  chance  upon  his  discoveries.  The 
history  of  the  arts  of  life,  as  well  as  that  of  the  natural 
sciences,  each  wonderfully  illustrates  this  fact,  but 
neither  of  them  more  strikingly  than  that  of  language. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  165 

All  the  new  forms  to  be  found  in  any  language  are  but 
new  combinations  of  elements  in  previous  existence, 
and  but  slightly  and  in  the  most  accidental  manner 
generally,  modified  to  a  new  use  or  to  a  new  form  of 
expression  for  an  old  use.  No  new  language  is  ever 
made,  or  was  ever  made,  out  of  original  underived  ma- 
terials by  man ;  for  the  reason,  that  he  is  not  only  in- 
capable of  such  a  work,  but  also  that,  from  the  very 
sense  of  his  incapacity  for  it,  he  is,  as  any  man  may 
know  by  appealing  to  his  own  consciousness  for  a  ver- 
dict, immovably  averse  both  to  the  effort  and  to  the  very 
thought  of  it.  How  amazing,  accordingly,  seems  the 
stupefied  atheistic  wonder  of  some  sceptical  German 
philologists,  at  the  fact,  so  incomprehensible  to  them 
and  to  any  one  else  who  does  not  see  in  language  the 
handiwork  of  God,  that  the  earlier  languages  of  the 
world  were  so  much  more  complete  in  their  forms,  than 
those  of  modern  times  ! 

We  do  not  pretend  indeed  to  solve  all  the  mysteries 
of  language.  We  walk  in  every  science,  and  when  in 
the  pursuit  of  any  truth,  in  but  a  narrow  zone  of  day, 
whether  using  the  torch  of  reason  or  the  upper  lights  of 
revelation.  Is  it  asked:  whence,  if  language  be  of 
divine  origin,  comes  the  order  of  successive  relation  in 
different  languages  to  each  other,  the  monosyllabic,  ag- 
glutinated and  inflected?  To  this  question  several 
answers  may  be  given.  We  might,  for  example,  rest 
quietly  in  the  admission  and  even  the  plea  of  human 


IGG  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

ignorance.  Questions  about  tlie  internal  connections 
of  things  are  more  easily  asked  in  every  field  of  inquiry, 
than  answered.  Man,  although  having  lived  for  six 
thousand  years  upon  the  earth,  yet  knows,  to  this  day, 
nothing  of  its  deep  interior,  save  for  the  shallow  dis- 
tance of  one  mile  ;  and,  amid  all  the  wonderful  results 
of  chemical  analysis,  no  one  can  possibly  tell  in  what 
life  or  light  or  electricity  consist.  We  accept  any 
thrust  at  human  ignorance  in  general,  and  return  it  also 
with  as  good  will  as  it  is  given  upon  the  objector.  But, 
so  far  as  the  divine  origin  of  language  is  concerned,  it 
is  as  easy  to  conceive  of  God's  having  created  different 
types  and  orders  of  languages,  as  of  his  having  made 
by  distinct  ordaining  fiats,  as  he  evidently  has,  so  many 
different  species  of  animals  of  the  same  genus.  That 
Great  Being,  whose  creative  impulses  have  in  them  a 
royal  measure  of  vitality  :  who  gives  to  every  zone  its 
own  distinct  flora,  in  such  unmeasured  abundance,  to 
every  animal  all  his  varied  elements  of  activity  and  en- 
joyment, and  to  every  man  the  whole  vast  comphcated 
apparatus  of  his  faculties,  resources,  opportunities  and 
blessings :  multiplying,  on  every  hand,  variety  in  spe- 
cies as  well  as  in  genera,  unfolding  one  order  of  life 
within  another,  and  joying  at  all  times  in  the  infinite 
overflow  of  His  power  and  skill  and  love  in  all  things  : 
surely  He  may  find  a  pleasure,  in  erecting  different 
stages  for  the  manifestation  of  man  as  a  social  being, 
that  is  too  subtle  for  our  penetration,  and  too  high  for 


THE   INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  167 

US  to  undertake  to  climb  up  into  the  secret  chambers 
of  his  plans. 

Suppose  moreover  that  the  agglutinated  and  in- 
flected languages  were  conceded  to  be  of  a  derived  na- 
ture, and,  in  their  special  forms,  of  absolute  human 
construction,  yet  the  divine  origin  of  language  itself 
could  be  asserted  and  vindicated.  The  development- 
theory  of  the  origin  of  language  claims  as  such,  not 
merely  a  successive  manifestation  of  related  and  im- 
proved forms,  but  also  that  this  is  the  whole  theoiy  of 
their  first  origination,  as  well  as  of  their  consequent 
progress.  Unfortunately  for  the  advocates  of  the  de- 
velopment-theory, in  respect  to  the  diff'erent  forms  of 
vegetable  and  animal  life,  there  is  no  such  commingling 
of  types,  as  there  should  be  on  such  a  view,  in  nature  > 
but  each  type,  on  the  contrary,  stands  by  itself,  a  bold 
distinctive  token  of  a  separate  creation :  so  that  hybrids 
are  monsters,  which,  like  the  Gorgon  and  Chim.Tera 
dire,  can  easily  be  dreamed  about  but  nowhere  found. 
So,  in  the  realm  of  language,  the  different  classes  of 
families  stand  apart  by  themselves,  in  large  well-defined 
groups :  no  one  of  them  losing  itself  in  another,  or 
being  untrue  in  its  growth  to  its  own  normal  type  of 
manifestation.  But  is  all  language  to  be  regarded,  as 
havin'g  been  in  its  first  state  a  mere  mass  of  word- 
germs  :  a  huge  pile  of  fortuitous,  unconnected,  crude 
syllabications?  If  any  are  pleased  with  such  a  philo- 
sophical analysis  of  the  different  styles  of  human  speech, 


168  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

can  they  persuade  themselves  to  ahght,  with  confidence 
in  their  speculations,  upon  such  a  theory,  as  a  matter 
of  historical  verity.  If  the  Chinese  system  of  mere 
separate  monosyllables  thus  represents  the  first  period 
of  its  manifestation,  how  happens  it,  that  in  four  thou- 
sand years  there  has  been  no  advance  in  that  part  of 
the  world  on  such  a  supposition,  as  in  all  other  parts, 
beyond  its  first  beginnings  ?  Nothing  else  has  re- 
mained stationary  in  that  strange  land,  unless  it  be  the 
kindred  art  of  painting.  The  Chinese  have  arrived 
surely  at  as  high  a  point  in  enterprise,  literature  and 
the  arts  of  life  generally  in  the  aggregate,  if  not  in  some 
single  particulars,  as  any  heathen  nation  before  them. 
Whence  then  such  a  long-continued  petrified  state  of 
the  language  remaining,  like  a  rock,  still  unchanged  in 
its  original  simplicity,  amid  a  sea  of  changes  around  it  ? 
On  the  theory,  that  every  language  was  not  only  a 
mass  at  first  of  monosyllabic  germs,  so  that  the 
organism  of  all  speech  must  have  commenced,  like  the 
reproductive  processes  of  vegetation,  in  a  sort  of 
monadic  cell-hfe  ;  but  also  that  man  himself  has  been, 
in  each  case,  the  creator  of  those  germs :  where,  we 
ask,  and  when,  lived  that  wonderful  generation  of  men, 
who  had  the  superhuman  genius  to  evolve  such  a 
world  of  prolific  germs  out  of  nothing?  The  mystery 
of  the  creation  of  language,  if  of  human  origin,  is  by 
such  an  hypothesis  only  thrown  farther  back  in  time. 
It  is  also  rather  increased   than  diminished,  by  such 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  169 

a  fancied  duplication  of  the  modes  and  elements  of  its 
formation  :  first  by  germs  of  man's  construction,  and 
secondly  by  their  multiform  evolution  in  so  many 
languages,  in  such  a  wonderful  abundance  of  com- 
plicated word-growths.  To  create  the  germ  of  a  tree 
is  even  a  greater  miracle,  than  to  create  a  tree  itself : 
since,  not  only  the  futiu*e  existence  of  the  tree  is 
thereby  determined,  but  also  all  the  agencies,  principles 
and  processes  fitted  to  secure  it,  are  compacted  together 
in  so  small  a  space  and  harmonized  in  their  adaptations, 
to  the  wide  array  of  circumstances  and  influences,  by 
which  it  is  surrounded.  A  botanist,  who,  after 
analyzing  the  elements  of  a  plant  into  its  ash  or  un- 
organized base  on  the  one  hand,  and  its  organific 
elements  on  the  other,  should  tell  us,  that  these  each 
came  forth,  in  spontaneous  succession,  from  the  bosom 
of  nature  to  their  proper  place  and  work,  without  any 
designing  or  ordaining  hand  to  guide  them,  would 
receive  for  his  recompense  our  pity,  if  not  our  contempt. 
But  is  not  a  theorist  very  much  like  him  in  his  positions 
who  contends,  that  the  bases  of  words  as  such  were 
made  by  men  themselves,  and  that  afterwards  the 
organific  principles,  which  form  the  constitution  of  the 
inflected  languages,  were  also  created  in  the  same  way, 
and  combined  with  them  in  such  a  beautiful  union  :  the 
more  beautiful  in  clearness  and  completeness,  the  farther 
back  that  we  go  towards  the  dawn  of  creation  ? 

Men   have   nowhere   shown,   within   any   historic 


170  HiSTOmCAL    SKETCH    OF 

period,  sncli  amazing  skill.  The  contributions  made 
by  any  one  generation  in  modern  times  to  the  stock  of 
language,  are  exceedingly  narrow,  except  in  the  single 
direction  of  scientific  terminology  ;  for  which  the  con- 
stant progress  of  the  sciences,  all  of  them  so  new 
in  their  origin  or  in  their  present  style  of  effective 
demonstration,  is  ever  making  new  demands.  And 
such  additions  are  not  new  words  in  themselves,  but 
only  importations  directly  from  the  Greek  and  Latin, 
into  English  or  some  other  modern  tongue.  And  yet 
we  of  our  day,  and  not  they  who  lived  before  us  in 
times  of  less  experience  and  progress,  are  the  old  men 
of  the  world ;  and  what  we,  in  the  manhood  of  historic 
humanity,  are  unable  to  do,  they  certainly,  who  were  so 
much  younger  in  their  attainments,  had  not  power  to 
accomplish.  The  history  of  language  also  is  always,  as 
it  floats  down  the  stream  of  time,  a  history  of  abrasion 
and  curtailment,  in  respect  to  its  structural  elements. 

To  suppose  that  Adam  was  made  by  his  great 
loving  Maker  but  an  adult  infant,  to  develope  lan- 
guage, his  first  social  and  mental  necessity,  by  slow 
gradations  from  unmeaning  inarticulate  cries  in  the 
first  place,  mere  syllabicated  whines  and  hiccoughs,  is  a 
theory,  that  neither  honors  man  in  its  statement,  as  it 
respects  his  real  wants,  or  God,  as  it  respects  his  dis- 
position to  provide  for  them.  That  same  benignant 
Father  of  mankind,  who  always  works  a  miracle  when 
it  .is  demanded,  for  the  same  reason  that  He  refrains 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  171 

from  working  one,  when  it  is  not :  who  confounded  the 
speech  of  those  who  Avere  building  the  tower  of  Babel : 
who  wrote  with  his  own  finger  on  the  tables  of  stone : 
who  inspired  prophets  and  apostles  to  speak  unto  all 
men  the  things  that  they  received  from  Him ;  and  who 
gave  the  gift  of  tongues  to  the  disciples,  on  the  day  of 
Pentecost,  for  the  purpose  of  better  spreading  the 
truth,  as  it  is  in  Christ :  he  surely  would  not  leave 
Adam  at  the  outset  to  himself,  as  a  poor,  ignorant,  help- 
less being,  to  grope  from  one  unavoidable  mistake  into 
another,  in  respect  to  the  very  simplicities  of  life,  and, 
when  accompanied  by  his  mate  made  for  high  com- 
panionship and  discourse  with  him,  to  eke  out  by  slow 
degrees,  in  a  few  unformed  and  broken  syllables,  a  poor 
and  pitiable  intercourse,  but  little  better  than  the  mute 
association  of  tAvo  animals  together. 

Wliile  Adam  was  yet  alone,  God  is  represented  as 
bringing  before  him  "every  beast  of  the  field  and 
every  fowl  of  the  air,  to  see  what  he  would  call  them, 
and  whatever  Adam  called  every  living  creature,  that 
w^as  the  name  thereof."  Surely  here  is  a  being,  who  is 
no  infant  in  knowledge  or  in  speech,  but  who  is  treated 
rather  by  God  himself,  as  one  who  knows  well  the 
scope  and  power  of  words.  And,  as  God  looked  upon 
His  works,  at  the  end  of  each  of  the  great  days  of 
creation  to  see  that  they  were  all  very  good  ;  so,  in  the 
record  here  furnished  he  seems  to  call  upon  Adam  to 
use  the  speech  which  He  had  taught  him ;   as  if  look- 


172  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

ing  on,  to  enjoy  the  pleasing  result  of  Ilis  own  con- 
triving skill.  As  a  matter  of  plain  undeniable  fact 
also,  eacli  successive  generation,  in  all  times  and  places, 
has  learned  its  language  from  the  one  immediately  pre- 
ceding it ;  and,  as  we  run  backwards  with  this  rule  of 
analysis  to  the  first  man  and  find  him  standing  alone 
in  the  garden  of  Eden  hearing  God's  commands,  not 
to  touch  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  and 
giving  names  at  His  summons  to  every  beast  of  the 
field,  are  we  not  forced,  both  by  logic  and  fact,  to 
ascribe  the  authorship  of  language  as  such  to  God? 
He  moreover,  who  made  man  for  intercourse  with 
Himself,  and  therefore  walked  with  him  in  open  vision 
in  the  garden,  would  surely  give  him  language,  to  use 
for  the  purpose ;  and  He,  who  afterwards  made  a  coat 
for  him,  when  having  no  implements  yet  prepared 
himself,  with  which  to  conceal  his  nakedness,  would 
give  him  words,  with  similar  love  and  care,  with  which 
to  clothe  his  thoughts  and  feelings. 

It  is  no  reply  to  this  general  course  of  argument  to 
say,  that  children  now-a-days  learn  language,  by  first  of 
all  uttering  monosyllables,  and,  from  such  feeble  initial 
attempts,  grow  up  into  the  full  use  of  all  the  mysteries 
of  speech.  For  children  learn  even  such  simple  mono- 
syllables, by  imitating  sounds  that  they  hear,  and  that 
too  under  the  constant  effort  of  their  parents  and 
others,  to  lead  them  forward  step  by  step  in  their 
progress.     In  mutes  accordingly,  as  all  know,  the  ear 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  173 

is  at  fault  and  not  the  tongue  or  larynx :  tliey  are 
dumb,  only  because  they  are  deaf;  or,  which  is  the 
same  thing,  they  cannot  speak,  because  they  have 
never  heard  others  speak.  Language  is  accordingly, 
one  of  the  imitative  arts  of  life. 

There  are  but  three  possible  theories,  concerning 
the  origin  of  language  :  the  development-theory,  w^hich 
we  have  attacked  and,  as  we  believe,  overthrown ;  the 
theory  of  its  divine  origin  which  we  hold,  with  both 
intellectual  and  moral  satisfaction  ;  and  still  another, 
which  seems  utterly  preposterous  in  itself,  but  which 
yet  no  less  a  scholar  than  Max  Miiller  soberly  ad- 
vocates :  its  origination,  as  an  unique  complete  product 
by  itself  of  a  single  human  mind,  especially  in  reference 
to  each  of  the  two  great  families  of  inflected  languages. 
Hear  his  singular  words  :  "  In  the  grammatical  fea- 
tures of  the  Arian  and  Semitic  dialects  we  can  discover 
the  stamp  of  one  powerfid  mind,  once  impressed  on 
the  floating  materials  of  human  speech,  and  never  to 
be  obliterated  again  in  the  course  of  centuries.  Like 
mighty  empires  founded  by  the  genius  of  one  man,  in 
which  his  will  is  perpetuated  as  law  through  gene- 
rations to  come;  the  Semitic  and  Arian  languages 
exhibit  in  all  ages  and  countries  a  strict  historical  con- 
tinuity, which  makes  the  idioms  of  Moses  and  Moham- 
med, of  Ilomer  and  Shakspeare,  appear  but  slightly 
altered  impressions  of  one  original  type.  Most  words 
and  grammatical  forms,  in  these  two  families,  seem  to 


174  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

have  been  thrown  out  but  once,  by  the  creative  power 
of  an  mdividual  mind ;  and  the  differences  of  the 
various  Semitic  and  Arian  languages,  whether  ancient 
or  modern,  were  produced  not  so  much  by  losses  and 
new  creations,  as  by  changes  and  corruptions  which 
defaced  in  various  ways,  the  original  design  of  these 
most  primitive  works  of  human  art." 

Does  it  not  seem  strange,  that  such  a  scholar  can 
seriously  maintain  a  view  so  singular  as  this  :  that, 
from  one  man's  mind  alone  the  great  primal  language, 
now  lost  in  itself  but  represented  in  various  proportions 
by  the  several  members  of  the  Indo-European  family, 
came,  at  a  full  and  sudden  birth,  into  existence ;  and 
that  too,  with  such  inward  and  outward  characteristics, 
that  subsequent  ages  have  been  able  to  add  nothing  to 
them  or  subtract  nothing  of  value  from  them ;  and 
that,  from  another  su.perhumaii  mind  of  equally  gigantic 
proportions  the  original  mother-language  of  all  the 
Semitic  dialects  came,  with  equally  grand  and  fixed, 
although  so  diverse  elements  and  energies,  into  being. 
Hear  him  still  again  in  the  same  strain.  He  says,  in 
an  article  furnished  for  Bunsen's  Philosophy  of  Universal 
History,*  "  on  all  the  Arian  languages,  from  Sanskrit 
to  English,  there  is  one  conmion  stamp,  a  stamp  of 
definite  indi^-iduality,  inexplicable,  if  viewed  as  a  pro- 
duct of  nature,  and  intelligible  only,  as  the  work  of  one 
creative   genius."     All   this   he   utters,  while  having 

*  Vol.  I.  p.  475. 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  175 

present  to  his  thoughts,  at  the  very  tmie,  such  a  con- 
ception of  these  languages  as  he  thus  expresses  :  "  no 
new  root  has  been  added,  no  new  grammatical  form 
been  produced  in  any  of  the  Arian  provinces  or  de- 
pendencies, of  which  the  elements  were  not  present  at 
the  first  foundation  of  this  mighty  empire  of  speech." 
He  views  accordingly  the  Semitic  and  Arian  languages, 
as  "  the  manifestations  and  works  of  two  individuals, 
which  it  is  impossible  to  derive  from  one  another." 

And  what  a  divine  intellect  must  such  an  one  have 
possessed !  and  what  an  age,  fortunate  beyond  all 
others,  must  that  have  been  that  had  two  such  giants 
in  it,  debarred  by  mutual  ignorance  and  the  wide 
interval  that  separated  them  from  any  communication 
with  each  other,  yet  each  employed  in  the  magnificent 
work  of  conceiving  for  himself  the  form  and  substance 
of  a  language,  which  was  to  be  ever  afterwards  the 
supplying  fountain,  each  in  a  separate  sphere  of 
relations,  of  a  long  procession  of  kingly  languages,  that 
should  draw  all  their  life  and  strength  from  its  fulness. 
Is  not  the  supposition  as  monstrous,  as  that  of  the 
ancients,  in  supposing  Atlas  to  bear  upon  his  shoulders 
this  solid  globe  on  which  we  dwell  ? 

There  is  indeed  a  wonderfully  scientific  and  artistic 
unity  of  plan,  in  the  structure  of  the  Indo-European 
type  of  language,  as  also  in  that  of  the  Semitic  :  and 
the  argument  is  conclusive  from  the  unity  of  analogies 
here,  as  in  nature,  to  unity  of  authorship,  and  that 


176  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

autliorsliip  divine.  Tlie  work  of  originating  language 
is  too  high,  for  man's  weak  faculties. 

The  hypothesis  that  language  is  of  any  other  than 
divine  origin,  necessitates  at  once  the  farther  sup- 
position, that  immense  periods  of  time  have  existed,  for 
the  development  of  the  great  leading  languages  of  the 
world,  especially  those  of  a  high  and  finished  organ- 
ization, as  the  families  of  the  inflected  languages.  This 
Bunsen  sees  and  boldly  accepts,  as  logically  he  must 
upon  his  theory.  He  says  "  a  concurrence  of  facts  and 
of  traditions  demand  for  the  Noachian  period  about 
ten  millennia  before  our  era,  and,  for  the  beginning  of 
our  race,  another  ten  thousand  years  or  very  little 
more." 

We  find  little  or  no  difficulty  in  supposing,  with 
him  and  others,  the  deluge  to  have  been  local,  although 
vast  and  overwhelming,  where  it  prevailed,  in  North- 
western Asia.  Just  principles  of  interpretation,  at  any 
rate,  seem  to  allow  the  possibility  of  such  a  theory ; 
but  not  so  with  the  history  of  our  race,  as  given  in  the 
Bible,  where  a  formal  record  is  made  of  the  successive 
generations  of  the  race,  step  by  step  and  name  by 
name,  with  the  birth  and  death  and  age  of  each  rep- 
resentative of  his  own  period  in  the  series. 

A  signal  proof  of  the  smallness  of  man's  inventive 
powers  in  the  department  of  language  occurs  in  the 
fact,  that  even  our  low  vulgar  words,  which  never  creep 
into  a  dictionary  or  upon  any  page,  that  has  light  and 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  177 

beauty  enough  in  it  to  deserve  a  day's  continuance  in 
any  place  of  honor ;  words,  which,  at  first  thought, 
one  would  suppose  must  be  the  slimy  product  of  Eng- 
lish depravity  :  are  yet  thousands  of  years  old.  They 
are  found,  with  but  little  change  of  form  in  Greek  and 
Latin,  preserved,  together  with  other  specimens  of  an- 
cient corruption,  amid  the  altars  of  Heathen  worship 
or  the  bowers  of  Heathen  Song.  Like  the  so  ancient 
sports  of  boyhood,  as  the  outdoor  game  of  ball  and  the 
indoor  game  of  chess,  which  were  played  in  Babylon, 
Athens  and  Rome,  just  as  they  are  now  among  us, 
they  make  us  feel  that  after  all  there  is  nothing  new 
beneath  the  sun. 

4.  The  necessity,  for  the  proper  comprehension  of 
any  one  language,  of  a  thorough  survey  and  analysis 
of  its  connections  with  other  and  older  languao-es. 
Comparative  philology  is  a  science,  of  even  more  in- 
terest, than  comparative  anatomy.  In  its  three  chief 
departments :  comparative  grammar,  comparative  lexi- 
cography and  comparative  phonology,  it  reveals  won- 
derful resemblances  between  the  older  and  newer  lan- 
guages, one  and  all  of  them,  even  in  the  most  minute 
details.  Etymology,  taught  and  studied  on  thoroughly 
scientific  and  philological  principles,  is,  not  only  one 
of  the  most  engaging,  but  also,  one  of  the  most  prof- 
itable of  all  studies.  The  time  is  near  at  hand,  and 
may  it  come  soon,  when,  in  our  universities  and  high 


178  HISTORICAL    SKETCH    OF 

scliools,  the  languages  can  no  more  be  taiiglit,  in  a  nar- 
row, mechanical  and  profitless  manner;  and  when 
mere  verbal  accuracy  in  translation,  and  the  careful 
skimming  off  of  a  few  facts  and  principles  of  syntax, 
form  the  sm*face  of  the  lesson,  shall  not  be  deemed 
adequate  results  to  be  gained,  in  so  high  a  department 
of  study.  A  professorship  of  Sanskrit,  embracing  the 
whole  field  of  comparative  philology,  is,  as  a  part  of 
the  true  ideal  of  classical  instruction,  an  absolute  ne- 
cessity in  every  college ;  and  it  must  ere  long  be  recog- 
nized as  such,  in  every  institution  that  aspires  to  the 
character,  of  doing  honestly  and  earnestly  its  true  work 
in  the  world.  There  is  surely  no  one  department  of 
instruction,  in  the  collegiate  course,  that,  in  respect  to 
all  the  elements  and  uses  of  a  liberal  education,  can 
compare,  in  importance,  with  that  of  the  languages. 
And  to  be  found  ignorant,  amid  all  the  lights  of  mod- 
ern philology,  of  the  multiplied  connections  of  Greek 
and  Latin  one  with  the  other,  as  weU  as  of  their  con- 
nection mth  the  Sanskrit  before  them  and  with  the 
modern  languages  behind  them :  to  make  no  use  or 
but  little  use  of  these  great  facts,  enhghtening  and  in- 
spiring as  they  are  in  the  work  of  instruction,  should 
entitle  him,  who  thus  dishonors  his  hio-h  callino;,  to  ex- 
change  at  once  his  false  position,  as  a  professed  guide 
to  others,  for  the  true  one  of  a  learner  for  himself,  in 
respect  to  its  first  prmciples.     With  the  educated  men 


THE    INDO-EUROPEAN    LANGUAGES.  179 

of  the  country,  are  lodged  its  fortune  and  its  fate. 
And  republicanism  of  the  highest  form  claims,  as  one 
of  its  chief  supports,  a  broad  and  columnar  style  of 
scholarship  among  them. 


TABULAR  VIEWS. 


I.    Op  the  Different  Languages  of  the  World,  in 

GENERAL. 

11.    Of  the  Languages  of  Asia  and  Europe,  in  gen- 
eral. 

ITL    Op  the  Indo-European  Famidy,  in  particular. 

IV.    Of  the  Sporadic  Languages  of  Asia  and  Europe. 


13 


TABULAR    VIEWS. 


I.— GENERAL  TABULAE  VIEW  OF  THE  DIFFERENT 
LANGUAGES  OF  THE  WORLD. 

First.  Those   of   the    Unhistorical   Continents :    Africa    and    the 
Americas. 

I.  The  African. 

1st.  The  Berber  Languages:  Native  in  Fezzan, 
Tripoli,  Tunis,  Algiers,  Morocco,  &c. :  Semitic 
in  their  origin. 

2(].  The  Caffre  Languages. 

(1)  The  Congo  :  spoken  in  Lower  Guinea. 

(2)  The     Sichuana :    the    language    of   the 

Bechuanas. 

(3)  The  Hottentot. 

3d.  The  Languages  of  Soudan. 

(1)  The  Nubian. 

(2)  The  Galla. 

(3)  The  Senegambian. 

II.  The  Aboriginal  American. 

These  never  have  been,  and  probably  never  will  be, 
classified  into  any  thorough  scientific  system. 

They  are  polysyllabic  and  pol3'synthetic  to  a  high 
degree ;  and  so,  exactly  antipodal  to  the  monosyl- 
labic languages. 

Second.  Those  of  the  Historical  Continents  :  Asia  and  Europe. 

I.  The  Monosyllabic. 
IT.  The  Agglutinative. 

III.  The  Inflected. 

IV.  The  Sporadic. 


184 


TABULAR    VIEWS. 


II.— TABULAR  VIEW  OF  THE  LANGUAGES  OF  ASIA 
AND  EUROPE. 


First.  The  Monosyllabic,  or  Family-Languages. 
I.  The  Chinese. 
n.  The  Indo-Chinese. 

The  Brahman,  Siamese,  &c. 

Second.  The  Agglutinative  or.  Nomadic  Languages. 
I.  Those  distinctly  Agglutinative. 

1st.  The  Tataric  Family. 


IE 


C-H_      = 


H     =        L 


(1)  The  Tungusic  languages ;    spoken  from 

China,  northward  to  Siberia  and   the 
River  Tunguska. 

(2)  The  Mongolic  :  The  Eastern  ;  Western  : 

and  Baikal  dialects. 

(3)  The     Turkic:    Dialects,    the   Osmanli  5 

Karatschai ;  Nogai ;  Kumiickish,  Sec. 

(4)  The  Samoiedic. 

(5)  The  Finnic,  or  Tschudic  :    Dialects,  Ug- 

ric  ;  Permic  ;  Bulgaric ;  Lappic  ;  Finnic. 
(G)  The  Tamulic. 

(7)  The  Bhotiya:  Gangetic  and  Lohitic. 

(8)  The  Taic. 

(9)  The  Malaic. 


II.  Those  not  so  distinctly  but  yet  essentially  of  the  same 
rude  style  of  mechanism. 

2d.  The  Caucasian  Family. 

(1)  Iberian :    Georgian  ;  Colchian  ;  Suanian. 

(2)  Abchasic. 

(3)  Lesgic. 

(4)  Mizshegic. 

Third.  The  Inflected  or  State-Languages. 
I.  Semitic. 
II.  The  Indo-European. 


TABULAR   VIEWS.  185 

The  Semitic  Languages. 

I.  The  Egyptian  or  Khamitic. 

1st.  The    Old,    or    Hieroglyphical,    or    Ante-historical 

Egyptian. 
2d.  The  Later  Egyptian. 

(1)  Hieratic. 

(2)  Demotic. 

3d.  The  latest  Egyptian,  or  Coptic. 

IL  The  Old  Assyrian  or  Babylonian :  differing  as  such,  only 
in  their  orthography. 

III.  The  Berber  dialects  of  Africa. 

IV.  The  Canaanitic. 

1st.  Phoenician. 
2d.  Hebrew. 

(1)  Ancient  Hebrew. 

(2)  Rabbinical  Hebrew 

3d.  Punic. 

V.  The  Aramaean. 

1st.  Chaldee. 
2d.  Syriac. 
3d.  Samaritan. 

VI.  The  Arabic. 

1st.  .^thiopic,  or  Abyssinian. 

(Arabic,  mixed  with  African  elements.) 
2d.  Maltese. 

(Arabic,  mixed  with  Italian.) 


186  TABULAR   VIEWS. 

III.— TABULAR  VIEW  OF  THE  ARIAN  OR  INDO-EUROPEAN 
LANGUAGES. 

First.  The  Arian  Family-pair. 
I.  The  Indian. 

1st.  Sanskrit. 

(1)  Ancient. 

a  The  Veda-dialect. 
h  Classical  Sanskrit. 

(2)  Later. 

c  Pali. 
cl  Prakrit. 

(3)  Modern. 

e  Hindt-stanee. 
y  Bengalee. 

2d.  Gipsy. 

II.  The  Iranian. 

1st.  The  Persian  Languages. 

(1)  Old  Persian. 

(2)  Zend. 

(3)  Pehlevi. 

(4)  Pazend  or  Parsi. 

(5)  New  Persian. 

2a.  The  Kurdish. 
3d.  The  Ossetian. 

(Geographically  a  Caucasian  language.) 
4th.  The  Armenian. 

(1)  Old  Armenian. 

(2)  New  Armenian. 

Second.  The  Grteco-Italic  or  Latino-Greek  Family-pair. 
I.  Greek. 

1st.  The  forming,  or  Dialectic  period. 

(1)  iEolic. 

(2)  Doric. 

(3)  Tonic. 

(4)  Attic. 


TABULAR   VIEWS.  187 

2d.  The  full-grown,  or  Hellenic  period. 

3d.  The  Alexandrine  period. 
4th.  The  Roman  period. 
5th.  The  Byzantine  period. 
Gth.  The  Modern  Greek  or  Romaic  period. 

II.  The  Italic  Family. 
1st.  The  lapygian. 
2d.  The  Etruscan. 
3d.  The  Italian. 

(1)  The  Umbro-Samnite  Dialects :     Umbrian  ; 

Samnite  or  Oscan ;  Vols(;ian  ;  Marsian. 

(2)  The  Latin. 

§  I.  Its  own  different  phases. 

1st.  Literary  Latin. 

(1)  Anteclassical. 

(2)  Classical 

(3)  Postclassical. 

2d.  Middle  Latin. 

3d.  Common     Latin:      (afterwards 
Italian.) 

§  II.  The  Modern  Languages  derived  from 

the  Latin. 
1st.  Italian:  (Dialects,  Lombard  ;  Ge- 
noese ;  Florentine ;  Neapolitan, 
Sicilian;  Corsican ;    Sardinian, 
&c.) 

2d.  Wallachian. 

(1.)  Daco-Romanic. 
(2)  ^lacedo-Romanic. 

3d.  Spanish:   (Dialects:   Oastilian  ; 

Catalonian ;  Galician.) 
4th.  Portuguese. 
5th.  Provencal. 
Gtli.  French. 
7th.  Rht«to-Romanic. 

(An  uncultivated  patois  of  Ital- 
ian elements  mixed  with  Ger- 
man, found  in  the  Caiitcn  of 
the  Grisons  in  SvvitzerlaTid.) 


188  TABULAR    VIEWS. 

Third.  The  Lettic  Family. 

I.  The  Lithuanian. 
II.  Old  Prussian. 
IIL  Lettish. 

Fourth.  The  Slavic  Family. 

I.  South-eastern  Slavic. 
1st.  Russian. 

(1)  The  Great  Russian. 

(2)  The  Little  Russian. 

(3)  The  White  Russian. 

2d.  Bulgarian. 
3d.  lUyrian. 

(1)  Servian. 

(2)  Croatian. 

(3)  Slowenic. 

II.  Western  Slavic. 

1st.  Lechish  or  Polish. 
2d.  Tshechish. 

(1)  Bohemian  or  Moravian. 

(2)  Slowakish. 

3d.  Sorbenwendish. 

(1)  Upper  Lusatian. 

(2)  Lower  Lusatian. 
4th.  Polabish. 

Fifth.  The  Gothic,  Teutonic  or  Germanic  Family. 
I.  The  Low  German. 

1st.  The  Norse,  or  Scandinavian. 

(1)  Icelandic,  or  Old  Norse. 

(2)  Swedish. 

(3)  Danish-Norwegian. 

2d.  The  Anglo-Saxon  (English.) 
3d.  The  Frisic. 

(1)  Netherlandish. 

(2)  Saxon. 


TABULAR   VIEWS.  189 


II.  The  High  German. 

1st.  Old  High  German. 
2d.  Middle  High  German. 
3d.  New  High  German. 

Sixth.  The  Celtic  Family. 

I.  The  kymric. 

1st.  Welsh. 

2d.  Cornish. 

3d.  Low  Breton,  or  Armorican. 

II.  Gadhelic. 

1st.  Gaelic  Proper,  or  High  Scotch. 
2d.  Irish  or  Erse. 
3d.  Manx. 


190  TABULAR   VIEWS. 


IV.  TABULAR  VIEW  OF  THE  SPORADIC  LANGUAGES  OF 
ASIA  AND  EUROPE. 

First.  Of  Asia. 

I.  The  Caucasian  Languages. 

(See  Division  II.  of  Agglutinated  Languages.) 

IL  The  Thibetan: 

A  hybrid  between  the  Chinese  which  it  resembles 
in  its  roots  and  the  Tatar  family,  which  it  re- 
sembles more  in  its  structure. 

III.  The  Japanese: 

Somewhat  mingled  with  Chinese  ;  but  in  its  gram- 
matical constitution  more  Tataric  than  Chinese. 

Second.  Of  Europe. 

I.  The   Basque :     In  the  Pyrenees — the  remains   of  the 
Old  Iberian. 

II.  The  Albanian  or  Arnautic : 

A  seedling  of  the  original  Gra3C0-Latin  stock : 
Dialects,  the  Geghian  and  Toskian. 


II. 


THE    HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 


II. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  MODERX  PHILOLOGY. 

Philology*  is  that  science  which  treats  of  the  origin, 
history  and  structure  of  the  words  composing  the  clas- 
sical languages  and  those  connected  with  them,  whether 
cognate  or  derived.  It  comprehends  what  is  usually 
included  in  the  sepjirate  departments  of  etymology  and 
grammar,  as  well  as  both  the  history  and  the  philosophy 
of  language.  The  present  state  of  philological  research, 
vast  as  are  its  results,  is  rather  that  of  splendid  prepa- 
ration for  a  complete  scientific  construction  of  its  ele- 
ments, than  any  such  absolute  construction  itself.     Its 

*  The  following  Articles  on  the  history  of  philology,  although 
incomplete,  are  yet  interesting  and  worthy  of  perusal :  Wiseman's 
Lectures  on  Science  and  Religion,  Nos.  2  and  3 :  Edinburgh  Review, 
Vol.  94,  (1851.)  pp.  297—339 :  Bunsen's  Philosophy  of  History,  Vol. 
1,  pp.  44 — 04:  Humboldt's  Cosmos,  Vol.  2.  p.  142  ;  Donaldson's  New 
Cratylus,  pp.  21 — 54 :  "Winning's  Comparative  Philologj',  pp.  16 — 32 : 
"Weber's  Indische  Skizzen,  pp.  1 — 38.  In  the  preparation  of  this  article 
the  author  has  been  careful  to  go  as  far  as  possible  to  first  sources,  and 
to  form  his  judgment  from  personal  examination,  and  on  an  independent 
basis ;  and  for  the  analyses  and  criticisms  made  of  the  works  of  the 
various  writers  quoted,  he  alone  is  responsible. 


194  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

discoveries  are  too  new  and  too  disconnected,  to  be  put 
as  yet  into  a  perfect  edifice  of  worthy  proportions  ;  while 
the  opportunity  also  for  making  fresh  acquisitions  is 
still  too  great,  to  be  favorable  for  that  high  repose  of 
thought  in  which  science  loves  to  dwell,  and  to  gaze 
with  deep,  calm  survey  upon  the  wide  circumference  of 
things. 

Philology,  like  her  elder  sister  Philosophy,  has  had 
for  centuries  a  name  among  scholars ;  but  hke  her,  also, 
while  honored  with  this  formal  remembrance,  she  has 
herself  remained  imknown,  until  standing  within  the 
horizon  of  our  own  day.  Prom  what  beginnings,  in 
what  ways,  and  by  what  men,  she  has  been  conducted 
to  her  present  seat  of  exaltation,  it  will  be  pleasant  and 
profitable  to  learn.  The  various' senses  of  the  word 
philology  {(fLloloy'ia)  at  different  times,  exhibit  in  a 
general,  though  faint  outline,  the  chief  phases  of  its  his- 
tory. In  old  classical  usage,  it  meant  the  love  of  litera- 
ture ;  afterwards  the  scholastic  mastery  and  exposition 
of  language;  more  recently  a  sort  of  general  amateur 
study  of  language,  as  a  matter  of  mere  pleasant  cu- 
riosity ;  and  last  of  all,  the  scientific  exploration  and 
comprehension  of  its  interior  mechanism,  in  relation 
both  to  its  original  elements,  and  also  to  their  varied 
transformations,  through  a  wide  range  of  comparative 
analysis. 

Grammar,  that  great  central  determinative  basis  of 
all  true  philology,  Grecian  scholars  at  Alexandria,  in 


HISTORY    or    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  195 

Egypt,  were  the  first  to  construct  into  any  distinct 
scientific  form.  With  both  synthetic  and  analytic 
thoroughness,  they  collected  and  compacted  together 
the  materials  furnished  them  by  their  mother  tongue, 
which  they  so  much  idolized ;  and  defined  with  clear- 
ness the  actual  inward  structure  of  their  own  language, 
as  an  independent  mechanism  by  itself.  This  new 
science  the  Latins  afterwards  borrowed ;  but  they  early 
lost  it,  as  having  any  controlling  influence  over  their 
educational  discipline,  and  even  over  their  own  speech ; 
for  in  each  one  of  the  modern  Romanic  languages, 
which  are  but  the  Latin  moulded  with  a  few  com- 
mingling elements  into  forms  better  adapted  to  express 
the  wants  and  tastes  of  later  generations,  like  old  gar- 
ments refashioned  for  new  uses,  we  find  an  almost  per- 
fect obliteration  of  the  many-angled  and  complicated 
syntax  of  the  original  Latin. 

It  was  in  the  cloisters  of  the  middle  ages,  as  in  a 
conservatory,  that  the  Latin  was  carefully  sheltered  from 
the  rude  storms  without,  and  cultivated  in  all  its  native 
beauty.  Here  scholarly  eyes  watched  with  jealous  care, 
by  day  and  night,  over  its  preservation.  Here  ancient 
words  were  kept  as  precious  coins.  Llere  Grammar, 
on  whose  wide  and  firm  supports  all  the  drapery  of 
language  rests,  as  a  rich  vine  with  its  clusters  of  fruits 
and  flowers  upon  the  strong  frame  beneath  it,  was 
valued  rightly  for  its  many  high  uses,  and  from  hand  to 
hand  and  heart  to  heart,  with  heroic  earnestness,  this 


196  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

sacred  relic  of  the  elder  times  was  carefully  borne  down 
from  one  age  to  another  for  the  behoof  of  those  who 
should  live  in  the  better  days  that  were  to  come.  And 
come  they  did,  and  that  with  observation.  At  the  Ref- 
ormation, the  deep,  slow  heat,  which  for  ages  had  been 
spreading  as  in  a  subterranean  mine  through  all  the 
scholarship  of  the  world,  burst  forth  with  its  long  accu- 
mulation of  energy. 

The  leaders  of  this  great  awakening  in  modem  so- 
ciety, as  of  the  next  greatest  event  since  that  day,  the 
exodus  of  the  Puritan  Church  to  these  shores,  were  the 
leading  classical  scholars  of  the  times.  The  new  era, 
accordingly',  of  modern  linguistic  scholarship  in  its  open 
and  progressive  manifestations,  like  that  of  modem  so- 
cial piety,  is  to  be  found  in  one  and  the  same  eventful 
period. 

Luther  and  Melancthon,  not  to  speak  of  others, 
were  themselves  fine  classical  scholars ;  but,  under  the 
pressure  of  the  times  upon  their  consciences,  they  rather 
used  the  scholarship  that  they  had  previously  acquired, 
for  immediate  desired  results  in  other  directions,  than 
devoted  their  strength  to  its  greater  enlargement. 

But  Reuchlin  in  Germany,  Erasmus  in  Holland, 
and  Budgeus  in  Erance,  each  in  his  own  land,  held  high 
the  banner  of  classical  study  before  the  eyes  of  many 
followers. 

They  were  succeeded  by  some  others  who  surpassed 
them,  as  each  generation  should  its  predecessor,  if  not 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  197 

in  the  quality  of  tlieir  scholarship,  yet  in  its  vastness  ; 
as  Muretus,  Scaliger,  Casaubon,  Salmasius,  Bentlcy, 
Porson  and  others,  whose  names  will  never  be  forgotten 
for  their  great  attainments  as  measured  by  the  oppor- 
tunities of  their  age,  and  much  more  for  the  deep  en- 
thusiasm out  of  which  they  grew.  High  aims  always 
deserve  and  secure  respect.  They  are,  indeed,  the  only 
title  to  it ;  and  no  standard  for  measuring  a  man  could 
be  more  false,  in  multitudes  of  instances,  than  the  com- 
mon one  of  success  or  failure.  But  the  scholarship  of 
those  days  either  contented  itself  with  its  own  conscious 
pleasm^e,  or  was  almost  wholly  occupied  in  disentombing 
old  authors,  whom  time  had  buried  in  oblivion,  or  in 
filing  away  excrescences  and  corruptions  from  the  text, 
as  first  obtained,  by  a  more  careful  collation  of  manu- 
scripts. Throughout  the  whole  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, and  especially  the  latter  half  of  it,  the  linguists  of 
Europe,  like  the  votaries  of  science  who  had  been  long 
searching  for  the  philosopher's  stone  and  the  elixir  of 
life,  were  eager  to  discover  the  one  mother-tongue  of 
all  the  languages  of  the  world ;  and  whilst  scholars  de* 
cided  variously,  according  to  the  different  amount  of 
their  research,  or  the  different  quality  of  their  mental 
constitutions,  the  majority  believed  that  it  was  the  He- 
brew, as  that  contained  the  oldest  literature  of  any  lan- 
guage which  they  knew,  as  well  as  the  earHest  records 
of  our  race.  Others  however  thought,  with  equally 
good  reason,  that  it  was  rather  the  Armenian,  as  that 

14 


198  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

was  the  language  of  the  people  living  around  ]\Iount 
Ararat,  where,  from  the  times  of  Noah's  ark,  their  an- 
cestors had  lived  in  unbroken  succession.  To  one  who 
would  see  the  trail  of  these  ideas  extending  down  even 
to  our  own  times,  it  will  be  worth  the  while  to  examine, 
in  connection  one  with  another,  Parkhurst's  Greek 
Lexicon,  Nork's  Latin,  and  Webster's  English  Diction- 
aries. The  Hebrew  is  represented  in  them  all  as 
moving  like  a  king  in  a  grand  triumphal  march,  with 
the  other  languages  walking  humbly  in  its  train.  In 
another  direction,  also,  much  effort  and  learning  were 
expended  by  scholars  in  that  century,  as  by  geologists 
fifty  years  ago  who  were  everywhere  seeking  to  find 
traces  of  the  deluge,  in  the  attempt  to  discover  sm'e 
proofs  of  the  confusion  of  tongues  and  of  peoples,  by 
the  dispersion  at  Babel. 

As  infidels  also  have  sought  to  make  each  one  of 
the  natural  sciences  in  their  turn,  when  they  first  be- 
gan to  make  any  clear  utterances  of  their  own,  bring  in 
their  testimony  against  the  Scriptures,  so  too  in  philol- 
ogy they  hoped  to  find  a  victorious  enemy  to  Chris- 
tianity. But  Chronology,  Ethnography  and  Etymo- 
logy have  all  been  tortured  in  vain,  to  make  them 
contradict  the  Mosaic  account  of  the  early  history  of 
man. 

During  the  last  century  great  interest  was  felt 
throughout  Europe  in  comparing  as  many  different 
languages  as  possible,  though  only  on  a  narrow  scale 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  199 

of  words,  one  "with  another.  Leibnitz,  who  died  an  old 
man  in  1716,  that  great  philosopher,  or  rather  uni- 
versal genius,  entitled  by  his  contemporaries  on  account 
of  his  large  learning  a  living  dictionary,  was  very  zeal- 
ous in  the  study  of  Ethnography,  and  carefully  col- 
lected all  lists  of  words  that  he  could  obtain  in  differ- 
ent languages,  for  the  piupose  of  comparing  them  to- 
gether. He  founded  the  present  Academy  of  Sciences 
at  Berlin,  the  home  of  modern  philology,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  promoting  the  study  of  language,  on  broad 
philosophic  principles,  by  tracing  out  with  care  their 
analogies,  and  through  them  also  the  genealogy  of 
mankind.  His  place  in  the  history  of  philology  is  that 
of  its  early  prophet,  foreseeing  in  dim  outline  the  won- 
ders of  this  new  continent  in  the  world  of  letters,  but 
which,  in  his  distance  from  it,  he  could  picture  to  his 
eye  only  as  a  beautiful  far-off  dream-land.  But  with 
what  sacred  fervor  did  he,  standing  within  the  shadows 
of  his  own  unilluminated  age,  wave  his  hand  to  the 
generations  following  him,  in  the  direction  of  his  ec- 
static though  faint  vision  of  the  future.  Catherine  II. 
also.  Empress  of  Russia,  ordered  a  special  list  of  many 
of  the  most  common  Russian  words  to  be  prepared, 
and  to  be  carefully  collated  with  their  equivalents  in  as 
many  languages  as  possible ;  and,  after  undertaking 
herself  to  draw  up  formal  tables  of  comparison  in  dif- 
ferent languages,  she  transferred  the  long  labor  to  Pal- 
las, an  eminent  naturalist,  who,  as  the  result,  published 


200  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

in  1787  and  1789  a  work  entitled  "A  Comparison  of 
the  Vocabularies  of  all  the  Languages  of  the  World." 

But  in  1784  an  event  occiu'red,  which  made  at  the 
time  but  little  show,  and  yet  drew  after  it  the  most  sur- 
prising consequences:  the  formation  of  the  Asiatic  So- 
ciety at  Calcutta  by  Sir  William  Jones,  who  had  gone 
to  Calcutta  a  year  before,  as  a  great  admirer  and  con- 
noisseur of  Oriental  poetry,  in  order  to  perfect  his 
knowledge  of  Indian  literature.  Before  his  day,  the 
term  "  oriental  languages  "  had  included  only  the  Sem- 
itic dialects.  Under  the  auspices  of  the  Asiatic  Society, 
the  Chinese  language  and  literature  were  thoroughly 
studied  by  the  best  Erench  scholars,  and  the  languages 
and  literature  of  India  by  those  of  England.  Those 
earnest  students  of  the  Sanskrit,  however,  we  must 
leave  for  a  time  at  their  work,  and  look  at  the  develop- 
ments meanwhile  of  European  scholarship  at  home. 

In  1806,  Adelung's  Mithridates  appeared,  or  at 
least  the  first  volume  of  it :  the  second  being  issued  in 
consequence  of  his  death  by  Vater,  in  1809,  under 
whose  auspices  and  those  of  the  younger  Adelung  a 
third  and  a  fourth  volume  appeared  in  1816  and  1817. 
The  lang-uages  of  the  world  are  here  classified  and  de- 
scribed ;  and  all  helps  for  their  acquisition  then  known 
are  stated.  Copies  also  of  the  Lord's  prayer  are  pre- 
sented in  a  great  variety  of  languages  for  examination ; 
biit  no  scientific  basis  for  a  comparative  study  of  them 
is  indicated  or  conceived.    These  collections  form,  there- 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  201 

fore,  but  a  mere  imarrangecl  mass  of  cmiosities,  no 
higher  in  character  than  in  mineralogy  would  ^e  a  col- 
lection of  stones  from  different  lands,  divided  into  classes 
accordinsr  to  their  mere  resemblances  of  color  or  of 
shape.  Neither  Adelung  nor  Vater  were  any  thing 
more  than  good  hnguists ;  and  Vater,  indeed,  was  not 
in  any  high  sense  entitled  even  to  such  a  name. 

Gradually,  and  in  the  form  of  many  successive  de- 
tails, the  true  light  was  now  beginning  everywhere  to 
dawn  upon  those  that  were  seeking  for  it.  The  instinct 
and  the  effort  to  seek  more  light  are  always  the  needful 
preparation  for  obtaining  it.  In  the  study  of  the  Per- 
sian, wonderful  resemblances  were  found  to  both  the 
Greek  and  German :  the  Latin  and  German  also  were 
compared  together  lexically,  and  found  to  possess  many 
sm-prising  points  of  connection ;  and  the  feeling  began 
to  be  common  among  scholars,  that,  in  the  pm'suit  of 
mutual  analogies  in  different  languages,  was  to  be  found 
a  path  to  much  sure  spoil.  Amid  such  investigations 
and  under  the  combined  action  of  many  minds,  through- 
out Em'ope  and  Asia,  the  new  and  true  philology 
slowly  but  steadily  rose  into  being,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  present  centmy.  German  scholars  claim  that  it 
should  be  called  Indo- German,  instead  of  Indo-Em'o- 
pean,  and  thus  bear  on  its  very  front  perpetual  praise 
to  those  great  Germans,  who  have  brought  its  wonders 
into  view.  But  it  is  to  English  enterprise  and  scholar- 
ship in  the  first  place,  that  the  world  owes  the  dis- 


202  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

covery  of  the  elementary  facts,  which  Gennan  industry 
and  skill  have  since  so  fully  developed  and  woven  into 
such  a  web  of  manifold  and  marvellous  beauty  to  a  lin- 
guist's eye»  On  any  view,  however,  the  title  used  for 
these  new  etymological  developments  should  be  one  de- 
scriptive of  the  breadth  of  their  relations  and  results, 
rather  than  of  the  genius  of  those  who  have  made  them 
known.  "  Great  is  Truth,"  whether  seen  resting  tran- 
quilly on  her  shield  upon  the  page  of  history,  or  moving 
in  majesty  along  the  pathway  of  human  advancement ; 
and  everywhere  let  her  be  honored,  for  she  is  divine, 
while  it  matters  little  whether  any  man  or  any  set  of 
men  either  stand  or  walk,  in  a  vain  show  by  her  side. 

And  what  now  of  those  busy  explorers  of  the  Sans- 
krit, for  many  silent  years  in  India !  Much,  in  every 
way.  Sanskrit  literatm'e  is  voluminous,  in  the  form  of 
poems,  plays,  fables,  systems  of  philosophy,  and  works 
on  astronomy  and  medicine.  No  one  of  the  other  In- 
do-European languages  has  ever  possessed  metres  so 
varied  and  so  complicated  as  the  Sanskrit.  The  hymns 
of  the  Vedas  especially,  written  at  the  period  when  the 
Arian  tribes  first  began  to  traverse  the  fields  of  North- 
em  India,  have  an  interest  altogether  their  own :  as  we 
not  only  stand  in  them  on  the  farthest  outermost  posi- 
tion in  the  whole  realm  of  profane  literature,  facing  the 
very  dawn  of  the  post-diluvian  world ;  but  we  also  see 
there  primeval  humanity  unfold  in  simple,  careless  ear- 
nestness, its  hopes  and  fears  for  this  life,  its  pleasures 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  203 

and  pains  and  all  its  anxious  doubts  and  surmises  about 
the  future.  These,  as  the  result  of  the  conquest  of  In- 
dia and  the  transplantation  of  English  minds  to  its  soil, 
some  of  the  best  scholars  of  the  latter  part  of  the  last 
century  studied  critically,  under  thorough  native  schol- 
ars. It  was  in  17C5  that  the  East  India  Company  ob- 
tained, by  the  treaty  at  Allahabad,  their  first  sover- 
eignty of  Bengal ;  in  the  management  of  which  they  de- 
termined to  rule  the  people  in  conformity  with  then 
own  laws.  Warren  Hastings  accordingly,  then  Gover- 
nor General,  caused  a  Digest  to  be  made  of  their  most 
important  books  of  laws  by  eleven  Brahmin  Scholars, 
which  was  first  translated  into  Persian  and  afterwards 
into  English,  and  published  in  London  in  1776  under 
the  title,  Code  of  Gentoo  Law,  in  the  preface  of  which 
Halhed,  the  editor,  first  spoke  of  the  Sanskrit  to  Euro- 
pean ears  as  being  the  original  language  of  these  an- 
cient books ;  but  without  any  knowledge  of  his  own  at 
the  time  of  its  character.  Eoremost  among  the  first 
students  of  Sanskrit  were  Sir  William  Jones,  a  man  of 
great  learning  and  high  cultivation,  Mr.  H.  T.  Cole- 
brooke,  author  of  a  Sanskrit  grammar,  and  Sir  Charles 
Wilkins,  also  the  author  of  a  Sanskrit  grammar,  and  the 
first  to  print  Sanskrit  in  Europe.  In  searching  the  re- 
cesses of  Sanskrit  literature,  like  travellers  rummaging 
the  pyramids  of  Egypt  or  the  ruins  of  Nineveh,  to  see 
what  they  could  find,  how  were  they  amazed  and  de- 
Ughted  to  discover  at  every  step  the  most  strange  and 


204  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

beautiful  correspondences,  not  only  with  the  Latin  and 
the  Greek,  but  also  with  their  own  mother-tongue,  and 
indeed  with  almost  every  language  of  which  they  had 
sufficient  knowledge  to  make  it  a  term  of  comparison. 
As  early  as  in  1778,  six  years  before  the  formation  of 
the  Asiatic  Society  at  Calcutta,  Halhed  expressed  his 
"  astonishment "  in  his  Bengal  grammar,  "  at  the  simil- 
itude of  Sanskrit  words  with  Persian,  Arabic,  Latin 
and  Greek,  throughout  the  whole  groundwork  of  the 
language."  But  Sir  William  Jones  was  the  first  to 
announce  to  the  European  Avorld  the  connection  of  the 
Arian  languages  one  with  another,  saying,  that  "no 
philologer  could  examine  the  Sanskrit,  Greek  and  Lat- 
in, without  believing  them  to  have  sprung  from  some 
common  source,  which  perhaps  no  longer  exists.  There 
is  a  similar  reason,  though  not  c^uite  so  forcible,  for 
supposing  that  both  the  Gothic  and  Celtic  had  the  same 
origin  with  the  Sanskrit.  The  old  Persian  may  be 
added  to  the  same  family."  This  sm-ely  is  a  very  bold, 
clear  statement  made  at  the  outset,  parlly  as  a  matter 
of  ascertained  fact,  and  partly  as  a  matter  of  well-con- 
ceived theory,  of  what  has  since  been  so  fully  discovered 
and  verified  by  so  many  scholars,  with  such  brilliant 
success.  The  first  direct  translation  made  from  the 
Sanskrit  itself  into  English,  was  that  of  the  Bhagavad- 
gita,  a  philosophic  episode  in  the  great  Sanskrit  epic 
Mahabharata,  furnished  by  a  young  merchant,  named 
J.  Wilkins,  in  1785  ;  and  was  followed  by  another  two 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY  205 

years  later,  of  a  book  of  fables  called  Hitopadesa.  In 
1789  Jones  published  a  translation  of  the  Sakuntala, 
a  great  drama  full  of  tender  and  sweet  thoughts  ;  whose 
gems,  when  spread  before  occidental  eyes,  created  a 
new  and  wide-spread  interest  in  a  literature  so  ancient 
and  foreign,  which  possessed  such  riches.  Sir  William 
Jones  died  in  1794  letting  his  mantle  fall,  as  he  passed 
away,  upon  Colebrooke,  a  man  remarkable  both  for  his 
intellectual  force  and  his  unwearied  industry.  Cole- 
brooke early  published  a  translation  of  the  chief  one  of 
the  Sanskrit  Koshas,  called  the  Amara  Kosha,  "the 
most  celebrated,"  says  Wilson,  "  in  all  India,  and  hav- 
ing the  widest  circulation."  This  w^as  but  a  vocabulary, 
made  by  an  author  named  Amara  Sinha,  and  not  a  dic- 
tionary ;  being  arranged  in  separate  sections  and  chap- 
ters, according  to  the  topics  in  the  text  that  it  accom- 
panied. Colebrooke  is  called  by  A.  Schlegel,  "  a  man 
who  had  shown  himself  a  tasteful  connoisseur  of  poetry, 
in  the  ancient  and  modern  Asiatic  and  European  lan- 
guages," and  no  one  to  this  day  has  exhibited  a  better 
appreciation  than  he,  of  the  genius  of  the  Sanskrit 
tongue.  Several  of  his  best  articles  have  been  grouped 
together,  from  "The  Asiatic  Researches"  and  "The 
Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society,"  into  a  volume,  en- 
titled "  Essays  on  the  Rehgion  and  Philosophy  of  the 
Hindus,"  a  new  edition  of  which  has  recently  appeared. 
Horace  H.  Wilson,  still  living,  then  assistant  secretary 
to  the  Asiatic  Society  in  Calcutta,  published  in  1819  a 


20G 


HISTORY    or    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 


Sanskrit  and  English  dictionary  in  London,  translated 
and  improved  from  one  originally  prepared  by  learned 
natives,  for  the  College  of  Fort  William  in  India,  almost 
immediately  after  its  foundation,  as  one  of  its  first  ne- 
cessities, having  been  begun  in  1800,  and  finished  in 
1809.  This  translation,  which  has  since  reached  a 
third  edition,  was  hailed  with  joy  by  Schlegel,  "  as  one," 
to  use  his  language  in  his  Indische  Bibliothek,  "by 
which  we  are  at  once  brought  forward  to  an  immeasur- 
ably advanced  position." 

And  how  was  the  spark  of  the  new  light,  thus 
brought  from  India  by  English  hands,  kindled  in  Ger- 
many ?  Eor  there  only  has  it  been  fanned  into  a  broad 
all -illuminating  flame.  It  was  Frederic  Schlegel,  whose 
zeal  for  linguistic  progress,  during  a  brief  visit  to  Eng- 
land in  1803,  made  him  the  depositary  of  the  sacred 
treasure  in  behalf  of  his  countiymen.  From  Mr.  Alex- 
ander Hamilton,  then  recently  returned  from  Calcutta, 
he  obtained  a  slight  knowledge  of  the  Sanskrit,  which 
he  afterwards  increased  somewhat  by  farther  study  at 
Paris.  Although  the  knowledge  thus  gained  was  slen- 
der, yet  it  was  put  to  a  noble  use  by  him  on  his  re- 
turn to  Germany,  both  in  his  own  intentions,  and  in 
its  final  results,  by  his  production  of  "  An  Essay  on 
the  Language  and  Philosophy  of  the  Indians,''  which 
he  pubhshed  in  1808,  and  which  first  aroused  his 
countrymen  to  this  new  and  great  study.  And,  al- 
though all  the  facts  that  he  gave  them  were  what  a 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  207 

pliilological  novice  could  carry  home  as  a  single  slieaf 
in  his  hand,  and  the  subsequent  discoveries  of  his  suc- 
cessors have  made  whatever  was  new  in  his  statements, 
appear  meagre  and  antiquated  enough ;  yet  the  impulse 
that  he  gave  to  his  generation  has  been  spreading  with 
ever  widening  force,  from  that  day  to  om'  own.  The 
highest  and  brightest  path  of  modern  scholarship  now, 
is  that  on  which  he  then  started  alone  with  a  strong 
adventurous  foot.  As  for  his  essay  itself,  it  was  a  tis- 
sue almost  equally  of  fancy  and  fact ;  and,  judged  by 
the  light  of  our  times,  its  scientific  aspects  are  almost 
contemptible.  But  yet  that  great  fundamental  princi- 
ple, which  he  was  the  first  to  state  with  distinctness, 
that  corresponde7ice  in  the  grammatical  structure  of 
different  languages  proves  their  identity,  beyond  any 
other  Mnd  of  resemblance,  remains  stiQ  intact,  and 
will  ever  remain  the  basis  of  all  real  scientific  philolo- 
gy. He  also  pointed  out  clearly  the  general  fact  that 
there  is  such  a  science  as  the  comparative  anatomy  of 
language,  in  reference  especially  to  the  Sanskrit,  Per- 
sian, Geeek,  Roman  and  Teutonic  languages.  His 
services  can  never  be  forgotten  by  the  lovers  of  com-, 
parative  etymology,  as  he  it  was  who  first  summoned^ 
his  own  people,  a  nation  of  scholars,  into  this  new 
field  of  research  where  so  much  intellectual  effort  has 
since  been  so  well  rewarded ;  and  whose  earnest,  joy- 
ous spirit  in  entering  upon  it  seems  to  have  been  trans- 
fused into  all  his  successors.     His  half  poetical  and 


208  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

half  philosophical  "  Essay  "  was  exactly  adapted  to  do 
the  work,  which  was  needed  at  that  period  of  German 
scholarship :  to  summon  its  energies,  then  just  begin- 
ning to  unfold  themselves  with  power  in  other  direc- 
tions, in  an  earnest,  enthusiastic  manner  into  this  new, 
wide-opening,  enchanting  field  of  intellectual  toil  and 
discoveiy.  And  that  we  may  know  all  the  better  the 
man,  to  whom  the  world  owes  so  much,  let  us  pause 
for  a  moment  and  listen  in  silence  to  his  words,  as  he 
stands  before  our  thoughts,  venerable,  not  only  for  his 
own  greatness,  but  also  for  the  wonderful  issue  of  his 
life.  "  It  had  been,"  he  says,  "  my  intention  to  pub- 
lish an  Indian  Chrestomathy,  in  the  original  character 
and  in  Latin,  which  should  contain,  besides  the  ele- 
mentary principles  of  the  language,  a  selection  of  ex- 
tracts from  the  most  imoortant  Indian  works,  with  a 
Latin  translation,  notes,  and  a  glossary.  Every  thing 
was  prepared  for  this  publication,  and,  besides  the  gram- 
mar and  the  two  vocabularies,  I  had  also  copied  in  the 
original  character  and  prepared  for  insertion  a  more 
than  sufficient  number  of  such  pieces.  I  endeavored, 
by  carefully  copying  the  finest  manuscripts  both  in  the 
Devanagari  and  Bengalese  character,  to  attain  such 
perfection  as  would  enable  me  to  furnish  in  T^Titing, 
very  good  models  for  the  use  of  the  type-cutter.  But 
I  found,  notwithstanding,  that  the  preparation  of  the 
types  would  require  far  more  efficient  assistance,  than 
it  was  in  my  power  to  procure.     The  sacrifice  of  per- 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  209 

sonal  predilections,  for  the  sake  of  any  particular  scien- 
tific object,  brings  its  reward  with  it ;  but  it  is  vexa- 
tious, to  be  compelled  to  pause  midway,  in  attaining  the 
desii'ed  goal,  from  the  want  of  extraneous  assistance. 
I  must  therefore  be  content,  in  my  present  experiments, 
to  restrict  myself  to  the  furnishing  of  an  additional 
proof  of  the  fertility  of  Indian  literature,  and  of  the 
rich  hidden  treasures  which  mil  reward  our  diligent 
study  of  it :  to  kindle  in  Germany  a  love  for,  or  at 
least  a  prepossession  in  favor  of,  that  study ;  and  to  lay 
a  firm  foundation  on  which  our  structure  may,  at  some 
future  period,  be  raised  with  greater  security  and  cer- 
tainty." 

Such  were  the  aims,  such  the  spirit,  and  such  the 
labors  of  this  first  leader  in  philology.  And  to  this 
hour  no  men  put  forth  so  much  effort  with  so  glad  a 
heart,  as  the  votaries  of  comparative  philology.  Pic- 
tures in  still  life  do  not  appeal  to  many  eyes,  as  do 
those  of  martial  fire  and  fuiy ;  and  so  the  steady  long 
continued  heroism  and  patient  benevolence  of  a  stu- 
dent's heart,  earnestly  and  lovingly  at  work  for  many 
years  by  day  and  night,  to  give  the  world  the  benefit 
of  its  best  thoughts  and  discoveries  in  new  and  untried 
fields  of  research,  are  among  the  specimens  of  human 
nobility,  which  may  be  often  little  prized  or  noticed 
here,  but  which  are  held  in  high  account  in  heaven. 
It  is  in  the  silent  depths  of  such  hearts,  brooding  over 
things  before  unknown,  that  the  ideas  which  afterwards 


210  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

rule  the  world  are  born.  It  is  he  who  works,  as  well 
as  he  who  prays,  in  secret,  that  the  Great  Father  above 
rewards  openly.  The  roots  of  all  upward  growths  are 
out  of  sight  under  ground. 

His  brother  A.  W.  Schlegel  made,  after  him, 
deeper  and  more  thorough  researches  than  he.  From 
1819  to  1830,  he  published  at  Bonn  his  "  Indische 
Bibliothek,"  (Indian  Library,)  which  was  a  sort  of  pri- 
vate bulletin,  issued  occasionally  by  an  enthusiastic 
scholar  as  he  could  get  sufficient  materials  for  a  num- 
ber, of  the  last  results  obtained  from  time  to  time  in 
Sanskrit  research.  And  well  do  its  contents  show,* 
with  what  versatile  talent  and  high  gratification,  he 
undertook  to  spread  the  light  of  his  new  discoveries 
through  his  native  land.  In  1825,  he  set  up  a  press 
for  printing  the  Ramayana,  a  great  Sanskrit  work.    He 

*  Vols.  I.  II.  Til.  contain  among  other  articles  the  following :  1st. 
The  present  state  of  Indian  philology.  2d.  Indian  poems.  (1.)  Intro- 
ductory remarks  on  Indian  epic  rhythm  and  German  hexameter.  (2.) 
The  orthography  and  pronunciation  of  Indian  names.  (3.)  Two  poems 
on  the  genealogy  of  the  goddess  Ganga.  (4.)  Notes  and  observations. 
3d.  The  issue  of  Sanskrit  works.  4th.  The  history  of  the  Elephant. 
5th.  The  Indian  Sphinx.  6th.  Etymological  study.  7th.  An  ex- 
tended notice  of  "Wilson's  Sanskrit  Dictionary.  8th.  A  full  notice  of 
the  transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  in  respect  to  Geography, 
Botany,  Ethnography,  Antiquities,  &c.  9th.  Two  articles  by  Hum- 
boldt on  the  Sanskrit  gerunds.  10th.  A  general  review  (in  1824)  of 
the  whole  field  of  Indian  philology.  11th.  The  correspondence  of  II. 
H.  Wilson,  from  Calcutta,  containing  brief  notices  of  some  Hindu 
dramas.  12th.  Indian  tales.  13th.  The  Indian  Sphinx.  14th.  Two 
long  articles  by  Humboldt,  on  the  Bhagavad  Gita.  15th.  Review  by 
Lassen  of  Bopp's  Sanskrit  Grammar. 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  211 

went  at  this  time  to  France  and  afterwards  to  England,  in 
order  to  perfect  liiinself  in  his  oriental  studies ;  and,  on 
his  return  to  Berlin  in  1827,  devoted  his  energies  with 
renewed  effect  to  their  advancement  among  his  country- 
men. He  and  his  brother  Frederic  were  the  founders 
of  the  modern  Romantic  school  of  German  literature. 
He  was  himself  a  very  voluminous  and  at  the  same  time 
valuable  writer  on  art,  history,  and  language.  These 
brothers  were  both  of  a  warm,  poetic,  mental  constitu- 
tion ;  and  in  such  hearts,  when  cultivated,  philology  is 
always  a  welcome  guest.  A  man  of  dry  nature,  all 
whose  instincts  and  aptitudes  are  only  mathematical  or 
logical,  may  manipulate  well  the  forms  of  words ;  he 
may  analyze  with  thoroughness  their  syntactical  combi- 
nations ;  he  may  be  able  to  state,  with  the  accuracy  of 
an  exact  statistician,  the  antiquities  of  a  language,  and 
map  out  with  precision  its  various  geographical  details. 
All  that  can  be  done  mechanically  he  can  do ;  as  one 
■without  a  soul  for  music,  or  an  ear  to  know  its  discords 
from  its  concords,  may  yet  play  skilfully  upon  an  in- 
strument, so  that  its  harmonies  shall  warble  in  every 
heart  but  his  own.  He  may  thus  be  a  cold  and  skilful 
anatomist  of  language ;  but  he  is  no  artist.  He  lacks 
that  divine  enthusiasm  which  the  ancients,  in  the  very 
word  itself,  described  as  "  God  in  us  ;  "  and  that  inner 
sense  of  the  beautiful,  "without  which  science,  nature, 
art,  and  even  thoughts  and  treasures  from  above  wear 
but  a  dull  and  leaden  aspect,  compared  with  their  en- 


212  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

chanting  loveliness  to  him,  whose  heart  knows  how  to 
revel,  like  a  bee  in  tlie  bosom  of  a  rose,  in  their  inward 
charms.  But  to  one  of  a  true  ethereal  temper,  whose 
eye  is  open  and  pmified  to  see  God  everywhere  and 
"  good  in  every  thing,"  and  whose  soul  thirsts  for  beauty 
as  a  child  does  for  love,  language  like  every  thing  else 
that  God  has  made  for  man's  use  in  his  outward  and 
upward  efforts  on  the  way  to  the  land  that  is  above,  is  full 
within  and  without  of  His  manifest  wisdom  and  love.  As 
the  sea  muTors  the  sky,  so  to  such  an  one  every  thing 
earthly  reflects  the  heavenly.  The  inner  beauties  of 
things  shine  through  all  their  outside  forms  to  such 
hearts,  as  to  spuit-eyes. 

Francis  Bopp  made  his  first  appearance  as  a  philolo- 
gist, in  1816,  in  a  work  of  high  merit,  entitled  "  The 
Conjugation-system  of  Sanskrit,  Greek,  Latin,  Persian, 
and  German  Languages."  It  was  this  production  that 
first  effectually  opened  the  new  era  of  comparative  phi- 
lology. But  as  his  great  work,  the  Comparative  Gram- 
mar, which  constitutes  properly  the  foundation  of  the 
new  science  of  philology,  in  its  present  form  and  di- 
mensions, was  not  published  until  many  years  after- 
wards; the  demands  of  both  chronology  and  history 
will  be  best  met,  if  we  turn  away  from  him  for  a  time 
while  brooding  over  his  precious  toil,  and  consider  the 
character  and  labors  of  other  leading  scholars  who  began 
now  to  appear  upon  the  stage. 

Rasmus  Rask  of  Denmark,  was  a  man  of  splendid 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  213 

capacities  by  nature,  and  of  large  attainments  for  his 
years  as  a  scholar.  His  star  rose  lirightly  now  above 
the  horizon,  but  unfortunately  soon  sank  again  from 
sight.  He  had  a  strong  taste  for  philological  research 
and  criticism ;  and  this  he  had  stimulated  and  strength- 
ened by  the  careful  comparative  study  of  the  Icelandic, 
Anglo-Saxon  and  Frisian  languages.  His  principal 
work  is  entitled  "  The  Origin  of  the  old  Norse  or  Ice- 
landic Languages,"  which  was  prepared  in  1814.  He 
discovered  also  and  showed  the  close  relationship  be- 
tween the  Germanic  and  classical  languages.  He  set 
out  (in  1816)  from  Petersburgh  with  great  zeal,  on  a 
tour  of  general  philological  exploration,  and,  arriving  at 
last  in  Persia  and  India,  investigated  thoroughly  the 
Zend,  and  prepared  the  first  grammar  of  that  ancient 
language  of  Persia ;  while  he  also  brought  home  with 
him  some  of  the  best  manuscripts  of  the  Zend  Avesta. 
He  made  besides  some  interesting  but  incomplete 
efforts,  to  delineate  the  comparative  featm'es  of  German, 
Greek,  Latin  and  Lithuanian  grammar.  Rask  did  not 
know  Sanskrit,  and  so  built  his  arch  of  comparative 
philology  without  its  true  keystone.  Bopp,  however, 
acknowledges  his  genius  in  classifying,  as  he  did  before 
him,  (in  1819,)  the  Indian,  Median,  Lithuanian,  Sla- 
vonic, Gothic  and  Celtic  languages,  as  all  belonging 
to  the  Arian  family.  Rask  also  clearly  defined  the 
place  of  the  Zend  as  a  sister  language  of  the  Sanskrit, 
instead  of  being,  as  some  had  begun  to  think,  a  corrupt 

15 


214  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

patois  of  it ;  while  he  showed  at  the  same  time  the  der- 
ivation of  the  modern  Persian  from  it,  as  of  tlie  Itahan 
from  the  Latin.  Like  the  great  Buttmann,  Rask  was 
endowed  by  his  Maker  Avith  Hnguistic  sensibiUties  and 
capacities  equal  to  those  of  the  best  scholars  of  any  age ; 
and,  as  Buttmann*  on  the  one  hand  lived,  for  the  world's 
misfortune,  before  the  time  most  open  and  appropriate  to 
so  exalted  a  genius  in  the  study  of  language,  so  Rask 
on  the  other  remained  but  long  enough  on  the  stage 
of  life,  to  show  mankind  what  a  bright  light  was  ex- 
tinguished upon  the  earth,  by  his  departure  from  it. 
But  Rask  is  worthy  of  distinct  remembrance  also  for 
his  zeal,  in  exploring  the  Turanian  as  well  as  the  Arian 
languages ;  and  he  was  the  first  to  do  so  with  any  en- 
thusiasm or  effect.  These  he  regarded  as  all  resting  on 
a  wide-spread  original  Scythian  base.  Professor  Cas- 
tren  afterwards,  who  was  a  sort  of  earlier  edition  of 
Lieut.  Kane,  in  respect,  on  the  one  hand,  to  his  per- 
sonal qualities :  as  the  boldness  of  his  enterprise,  the 
firmness  of  his  will,  and  the  delicacy  of  his  health ; 
and  on  the  other  to  the  outward  mode  and  sphere  of 
his  labors:  travelling  alone  as  he  did  in  the  frozen 
north  in  his  own  sledge,  over  the  snows  of  Siberia  and 
along  the  borders  of  the  Arctic  Ocean :  published  in 
various  volumes,  between  1844  and  1850,  the  results 

*  Could  Buttmann  but  have  had  the  lever  of  the  Sanskrit  in  his 
hands,  what  marvels  would  he  not  have  raised  up.  out  of  the  hard  long 
trodden  pathway  of  Greek  grammar  and  Greek  philology,  over  wjjich 
so  many  bad  heedlessly  ti-amped  in  their  ignorance,  before  him. 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  215 

of  liis  wide  and  long  research  in  tins  branch  of  lan- 
guages; and  they  confirmed  for  the  most  part  the 
learned  convictions  and  statements  of  Rask.  The 
Teutonic  researches  of  Rask,  though  ended  at  a  very 
imperfect  stage  in  their  accomplishment,  have  been  since 
so  well  completed  by  Grimm,  as  to  leave  little  for  years 
to  come  to  be  expected  farther  in  this  direction. 

In  1819,  Jacob  Grimm  commenced  publishing  his 
magnificent  work,  a  Teutonic  Grammar,  embracing  the 
Scandinavian  as  well  as  the  German  languages,  and 
drawing  his  authorities  from  the  whole  wide,  long  range 
of  German  authorship,  from  Ulfilas'  translation  of  the 
Scriptures,  (a.  d.  388,)  the  only  relic  in  existence  of 
the  old  Gothic,  down  to  his  own  day ;  and  finished  his 
great  labor  in  1837.  The  scholarship  of  the  work  is 
wonderful,  for  its  breadth,  accuracy  and  ingenuity.  It 
is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  the  world  has  never  ex- 
hibited a  finer  specimen  of  the  true  scholar,  according 
to  the  highest  and  fullest  ideal,  than  he  is.  Plis 
"  scale,"  or  law  of  correspondences  of  sound  in  the  dif- 
ferent Indo-European  languages,  is  one  of  the  highest 
triumphs  of  inductive  analysis  that  have  been  ever  fur- 
nished in  any  science.  Bopp's  first  incidental  sugges- 
tions in  this  direction  he  perfected  into  fall  ripe  science ; 
and,  in  constructing  his  "  scale,"  made  it  with  such 
nicety,  as  to  its  own  characteristics  and  all  its  grada- 
tions, that,  while  the  sphere  of  its  use  has  been  nuich 
extended  since,  no  improvement  has  been  made  upon 


216  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

it  at  any  time,  in  respect  to  its  own  essential  nature. 
He  has  thus  in  effect  given  not  only  definiteness  and 
certainty  but  also  breadth  and  power,  to  the  science  of 
comparative  etymology.  The  laws  of  analogy  he  has 
shown  to  pervade  as  truly  human  language  as  nature 
herself.  The  style  of  these  discoveries,  as  of  the  mind 
that  made  them,  is  altogether  Newtonian.  While  the 
finite  mind  cannot  create  analogies,  it  reveals  itself  in 
one  of  its  highest  forms  of  disciplined  strength,  in  being 
able  to  trace  them  with  clearness,  in  the  demonstrations 
which  the  Infinite  Mind  has  made  of  Itself  in  their  ap- 
pointment. 

But  behold  the  Scale  and  the  interpretation  of  it ! 

Grimm's  Scale.* 

Labials.  Gutturals.                      Dentals 

Greek,             '         B.       P.      PH.  G.      K.     CH.  D.       T.  TH. 

Gothic,                     P.       PH.   B.  K.      CH.  G.  T.       TH.  D. 

Old  High  German,  PH.    B.       P  CH.    G.     K.  TH.     D.  T. 

For  the  Latin  the  scale  runs  as  follows : 

Latin,  B.       P.       F.  G.       C.     H.  D.       T.      (F). 

Gothic,  P.      F.       B.  K.       H.     G.  T.       TH.  D. 

Old  High  Gei-man,  PH.   F.      P.  CH.    H.    K.  Z.       D.      T. 

The  intei'pretation  of  the  scale  is  this  :  that  the 
several  letters  corresponding  perpendicularly  displace 
each  other,  or  are  substituted  for  each  other,  in  the 
equivalent  forms  of  the  different  languages  respectively 
especially  when  initial.  Thus  the  Gothic  and  the 
Lower  German  dialects  substitute,  in  relation  to  the 

*  Grimm's  Geschichte  der  deutschen  Sprache,  p.  276. 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 


217 


Greek  and  Latin,  and  measurably  also  to  the  Sanskrit 
and  the  Zend,  asph'ates  for  original  tenues,  (as,  h  for  k, 
th  for  t,  and  f  for  p) :  tenues  for  medials,  (as,  t  for  d,  p 
for  b,  and  k  for  g) ;  and  medials  for  aspirates  (as,  g 
for  ch,  d  for  th,  and  b  for  f )  It  must  not  be  supposed 
that  these  interchanges  are  observed  in  every  case, 
with  absolute  uniformity.  To  what  law,  except  that 
of  love  in  things  moral,  and  of  attraction  in  things 
physical,  are  there  not  exceptions  allowed  and  even 
constituted  ?  But  such  are  the  general  principles  that 
prevail  in  respect  to  the  mutual  interchanges  of  letters, 
in  these  several  languages. 


EXAMPLES. 

Sanskrit. 

Greek. 

Latin. 

Gothic. 

Old  High 
German. 

English. 

aham,  for  agham 

iyci 

ego, 

ik 

ih 

I 

dyp6; 

ager 

akrs 

achar 

acre 

svan,  a  dog 

canis 

hunths 

hunt 

hound 

dasan,  ten 

6iKa 

decern 

taihun 

zehan 

(  ten 
I  tithe 

danta(s),  tooth 

oSoiJs 

dens 

tunthus 

zand 

tooth 

trajas,  three 

rpeig 

tres 

threis 

dri 

three 

Si'ik-pv 
SdKpvjjLa 

(  hicryma 
•s  archaic 
(  dacrima 

Uagr 

zahar 

tear 

Xeiiretv 

linquere 

leiban 

lipu 

leave 

ve,  to  weave 

IT  ia  for 

V  vitis 

wida 

(  withe 
•j  with 
(  wither 

ad,  to  eat 

£6eiv 

cdere 

itan 

ezan 

eat 

li^tXyeiv 

mulgerc 

miluks 

miluh 

milk 

pada(s),  foot 

TTOVi 

pes 

fotus 

fuoz 

foot 

pula  (s),  much 

^6\vi 

plus 

fihi 

filo 

full 

upari,  above 

i'-ip 

super 

ufar 

uhar 

(  upper 
]  over 

sad,  to  sit 

sUaOai 

sedere 

sitan 

sizan 

sit 

218  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

Such  analogies,  found  in  hundreds  of  instances, 
cannot  be  accidental.  Thus  Grimm  virtually  founded 
a  new  and  widely  influential  department  of  linguistic 
science,  which  he  denominated  Lautlehre  or  the  doc- 
trine of  sounds,  or  phonetic  correspondences  and  sub- 
stitutions. Besides  his  Teutonic  grammar,  he  has  pub- 
lished a  work  entitled  "  Mythology  and  Researches  into 
German  Antiquities."  He  has  also  written  a  very  in- 
teresting history  of  the  German  language,  as  seen  from 
the  stand-point  of  philology,  which  he  published  in  two 
volumes,  at  Leipsic,  in  1853.  This  work  is  held  in 
high  honor  in  Germany,  and  yet  the  regret  felt  is  uni- 
versal, that  his  vast  labors  as  a  student  and  author 
have  prevented  him  from  perfecting  the  work,  in  ful- 
ness of  form  and  finish  of  detail,  more  nearly  accord- 
ing to  the  model  of  his  own  thoughts.  On  whatever 
subjects  his  mind  is  employed,  it  makes  close  research 
over  a  mde  range  of  inquiry.  He  spares  neither  time 
nor  pains,  in  making  coast-surveys  of  German  litera- 
ture, and  taking  soundings  in  all  its  seas,  and  mapping 
out  carefully  all  the  discoveries  which  he  makes,  for 
the  world's  good.  He  is  now,  with  his  brother  Wil- 
liam, preparing  a  comprehensive  dictionary  of  his  ver- 
nacular tongue,  beyond  both  for  height  and  breadth 
the  plan  of  any  dictionary  prepared  or  conceived  for 
preparation,  in  any  language :  a  work  of  Herculean 
toil,  which  none  but  an  intellectual  giant  coidd  for  a 
moment  feel  himself  adequate  to  achieve.     Slowly  but 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    rHILOLOGY.  219 

surely  the  vast  work  rises  under  tlieir  hands.  May 
they  live  to  put  on  its  topmost  stone !  And  yet  so 
broad  are  the  foundations  laid,  and  so  huge  is  the 
structure  that  is  to  rest  upon  them,  that  one  could 
hardly  expect  that  they  would  live,  were  they  men  in 
middle  life,  to  see  its  consummation.  Jacob  Grimm, 
though  still  full  of  the  fire  of  his  youth,  is  a  septuage- 
narian. How  sublime  is  German  scholarship,  in  both 
its  patience  under  present  labor  and  its  trust  in  the 
future  for  the  cherished  result !  and  neither  the  changes 
of  life  nor  its  shortness  frighten  it  back  from  any  ef- 
forts, however  long  or  hard,  which  seem  worthy  to  be 
made.  What  an  interval  of  many  years  often  stretches 
between  the  first  and  last  volume  of  a  standard  German 
work !  and  how  many,  who  have  eagerly  seized  upon  the 
first,  have  through  many  long  years  kept  continually 
looking  for  its  successor,  and  died  without  the  sight ! 

The  one  man,  however,  who  by  his  wide  research 
and  vast  learning  and  wonderful  insight  and  ingenuity, 
is  entitled  beyond  all  others,  to  the  name  of  being  the 
founder  of  modern  philology  as  a  science,  is  Francis 
Bopp :  not  so  old  a  man  as  Grimm,  yet  perhaps  hardly 
so  full  of  his  native  strength.  The  one  work,  in  which 
Bopp  has  specially  developed  the  wonderful  proportions 
and  relations  of  this  new  science,  is  his  "  Comparative 
Grammar  of  the  Sanskrit,  Zend,  Greek,  Latin,  Lithu- 
anian, old  Slavonic,  Gothic  and  German,"  which  he 
began  to  publish  in  1833  and  finished  in  1849.     Lit- 


220  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

tie  did  Bopp  dream  in  his  earlier  works,  what  a  mine 
of  inexhaustible  riches  he  had  struck,  and  what  a  sen- 
sation he  was  ere  long  to  produce  among  the  scholarly 
minds  of  his  age.  It  was  in  these  works  that  he  came 
at  the  very  outset  upon  the  vein  of  phonetic  correspond- 
ences in  different  languages,  from  which  afterwards 
both  himself  and  others  deduced  such  vast  results. 
Like  other  great  discoveries,  it  was  stumbled  upon ! 
This  is  the  very  meaning  of  the  word  invent :  they 
came  upo?i  it,  as  a  traveller  upon  a  prize  by  the  road- 
side. A  few  similar  cases  of  transformations,  substi- 
tutions and  interchanges  in  consonants  and  vowels, 
sufficed  to  suggest  inquiry  and  comparison  upon  a 
wide  scale  to  those  earnest  students  :  as  the  result  of 
which  they  found  a  vast  mass  of  natural  hieroglyphs 
treasm'ed  on  the  walls  of  each  language  that  they  inves- 
tigated ;  the  hidden  alphabet  of  which  they  also  dis- 
covered, preserved  in  the  very  characters  themselves. 
Bopp  is  now  preparing,  with  many  improvements,  a 
new  edition  of  his  grammar,  and  has  published  three 
parts  of  it  already,  since  August  1857.  Others  have 
made  great  achievements  in  separate  fields  of  research, 
but  Bopp  was  the  first,  and  has  ever  been  foremost,  in 
developing  the  comparative  features  of  the  old  and  new 
languages  of  the  civilized  world,  Asiatic  and  Euro- 
pean ;  and  that  on  no  partial  or  fanciful  basis,  but  by 
an  astonishingly  A^ide  and  satisfactory  scale  of  compari- 
sons.    He  analyzes  the  whole  grammatical  structm-e 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  221 

of  the  Indo-Eiu'opcaii  langua|2;es ;  se})arating  words 
everywhere  into  their  roots,  their  formative  and  deriva- 
tive sufRxes,  their  case-terminations  and  person-end- 
ings :  opening  into  view  in  each  language  its  whole 
interior  frame-work,  and  showing  them  all  to  be,  both 
generally  and  specially,  alike  in  their  organism  ;  and 
the  student  feels  on  the  one  hand,  that  he  stands  on 
terra  firma,  while  surveying  the  scene  of  strange  and 
multiform  correspondences  of  all  languages  around 
him,  and  on  the  other  that  he  is  gazing  everywhere  on 
unmistakable  realities,  both  old  and  new.  To  then- 
difference  of  form  he  applied,  with  magic  effect,  the 
phonetic  principles  which  he  practically  developed,  but 
never  scientifically  methodized.  He  was  also  the  first  to 
strike  out  that  new  and  valuable  idea  in  philology,  that 
the  organific  principle  of  language  is  to  be  found  in  its 
pronominal  elements  ;  so  that  these  contain  the  whole 
material  of  flexion,  whether  in  the  verb  or  in  the  noun 
both  substantive  and  adjective.  Bopp  is  one  of  the 
few  men  whose  lives  form  eras  in  the  progress  of  hu- 
manity. The  study  of  his  comparative  grammar  is 
like  a  constant  festival  to  an  inquisitive,  scientific, 
scholarly  mind.  He  travels,  like  one  voyaging  on  the 
Rhine  or  the  Nile  or  passing  through  a  series  of  lovely 
landscapes  in  "  la  belle  France,"  through  scenery  that 
at  every  point  is  full  of  beauty  or  of  wonder. 

Bopp  has  become  in  effect  the  founder  of  a  wholly 
new  order  of  classical  literature.     Language  has  been 


222  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

coiistnictecl,  under  his  guidance  and  influence,  into  a 
science  having  a  definite  area  and  horizon.  It^terri- 
tories  have  been  explored  with  care ;  and  where  its  riches 
he,  and  what  they  are,  is  well  known.  Like  Bacon  in 
phOosophy,  he  has  brought  in  philology  the  reign  of 
theory  without  facts  to  a  perpetual  end.  Up  to  his 
day,  the  streams  of  etymology  were  the  favorite  resort 
of  ail  sorts  of  fishers  after  whims  and  fancies,  and  the 
most  fantastic  absurdities  were  treated  as  scientific 
verities.  But,  by  his  long  and  earnest  pursuit  of  facts, 
the  most  sui'prising  affinities  have  been  found  to  exist 
between  the  Sanskrit  and  all  the  other  members  of  the 
Indo-European  family.  And  the  Sanskrit  itself  is  found 
to  be  not  their  parent,  but  rather  their  elder-bom  sister, 
although  so  much  older  and  of  such  a  different  bearing 
as  to  have  weU-nigh  the  mien  and  place  and  care  of  a 
parent  among  her  younger  sisters;  for  the  Sanskrit 
also  gives  decided  proof  of  a  derived  existence,  at  a  far 
earlier  date,  from  the  same  common  stock.  And  the 
Sanskrit,  now  treasured  in  books,  is  found  to  be  the 
Sanskrit  of  a  later  date  than  that  to  which  the  affiliated 
Indo-European  languages  bear  such  strangely  full  and 
minute  resemblance :  so  that  sometimes  the  Latin  itself 
is  more  faithful  to  the  archaic  radical  type  of  the  word, 
as  careful  phonological  analysis  shows,  than  the  Sanslo-it 
itself  in  its  present  form. 

It  has  been  quite  impossible  to  get  a  copy  of  Bopp 
until  within  a  short  time  :  almost  fabulous  prices  having 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  ^23 

been  given  for  a  stray  copy  that  could  be  picked  up  in 
any  .part  of  the  world.  An  advertisement  of  such  a 
copy  for  sale  would  attract  at  once  as  eager  a  host  of 
buyers,  as  would  the  sight  of  a  chamois  left  dead  in  the 
mountains,  of  hungry  eagles.  A  single  broken  volume 
of  a  copy  was  snatched  after,  wherever  found,  at  any 
price.  Por  those  unacquainted  with  German,  an  Eng- 
lish translation  by  Eastwick  (2d  edition,  London,  1854) 
can  be  obtained  at  a  cost  of  $16,  and  though  very  dear 
it  is  well  worth  the  purchase.  In  1834  Bopp  published 
his  Sanskrit  grammar,  and  in  1845  a  second  edition  of  it, 
and  it  is  still  the  best  Sanskrit  grammar  to  be  had.  In " 
1836  appeared  his  "Vocalismus,  oder  sprachverglei- 
chende  Kritiken,"  &c.,  or  philological  criticisms  on 
Grimm's  German  grammar,  and  in  1847  his  "  Glossa- 
rium  Sanskritum  "  or  "  Sanskrit  Dictionary  ;  in  which 
all  the  Roots  and  most  common  Sanskrit  Words  are 
unfolded  and  compared  with  Greek,  Latin,  German, 
Lithuanian,  Slavonic  and  Celtic  Words."  His  last  new 
work  is  the  "  Vergleichendes  Accentuationssystem," 
published  in  1854.  It  is  a  comparative  view  of  the 
system  of  accentuation  in  Sanskrit  and  Greek,  and,  like 
all  his  works,  full  of  evidences  of  acuteness  and  abihty. 
It  was  immediately  followed  by  an  ingenious  work, 
published  by  Professors  Henri  Weil  and  Louis  Benloew, 
in  French,  at  variance  in  many  of  its  leading  positions 
with  Bopp's,  entitled  "  Theorie  generale  de  I'accentua- 
tion  Latine."     Bopp  has  been,  however,  most  success- 


224  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

fully  controverted  in  some  of  his  views  by  Prof.  Whit- 
ney, of  Yale  College,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Amer- 
ican Oriental  Society,  and  published  in  their  Journal, 
Vol.  V.  pp.  195  ff.,  as  well  as  also  in  Germany  in 
Kuhn's  Zeitschrift. 

Bopp's  services  therefore  as  a  linguist  have  had,  as 
we  have  shown,  two  great  directions  :  the  thorough  ad- 
vancement of  Sanskrit  scholarship  as  such,  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  science  of  Comparative  Grammar; 
which  not  only  rose  at  the  outset  almost  spontaneously 
as  if  a  fairy  castle,  out  of  the  elements  of  Sanskrit 
study,  as  soon  as  they  were  thoroughly  mastered,  but 
has  ever  since  rested  on  them  for  its  foundations,  as 
there  it  must  forever  rest.  A.  W,  Schlegel  and  his 
admirers,  like  Lassen,  have  confined  themselves  to  the 
investigation  of  Indian  literature  and  antiquities  and 
the  issue  of  critical  texts  of  Sanskrit  Avorks ;  while  Bopp 
and  Grimm  have  gone  with  the  torch  of  analytic  phi- 
losophy into  the  depths  of  the  Sanskrit  language  itself, 
as  well  as  into  those  of  all  the  related  languages,  in 
order  to  find  their  hidden  riches. 

Wherever  Bopp's  discoveries  are  known,  language 
w^ill  be  studied  and  taught  on  entirely  different  princi- 
ples and  with  very  different  results  from  wdiat  have 
been  ever  before  witnessed.  Each  language  must  now 
be  studied,  not  only  as  it  is  in  itself,  but  also  in  its  va- 
rious relations  ;  and  he  w^ho  studies  but  one  language 
must  stand  on  the  outside  of  the  gate  of  even  that,  and 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN   PHILOLOGY.  22  0 

only  dream,  but  never  see,  what  is  within  its  walls ; 
what  of  beauty  !  what  of  vastness  !  what  of  life  !  Some- 
thing, indeed,  far  different  from  the  mere  mastery  of  a 
few  authors  in  a  given  language,  is  to  be  comprehended 
in  the  idea  of  studying  not  only  language  in  general 
but  any  language  in  particular. 

Augustus  F.  Pott,  now  Professor  at  Halle,  should 
ever,  both  for  his  contemporaneousness  and  his  merit 
as  a  writer  in  philology,  be  associated  with  Bopp  and 
Grimm.  They  form,  indeed,  by  themselves,  a  splendid 
constellation  in  the  firmament  of  this  science.  His 
great  work  was  published  in  two  volumes,  in  1833  and 
1836,  at  Lem go,  entitled  "  Etymologische  Porschun- 
gen,"  &c.,  or  "  Etymological  Investigations  in  the  Pield 
of  the  Indo-Germanic  Languages,  with  special  Refer- 
ence to  the  Changes  of  Sound  in  the  Sanskrit,  Greek, 
Latin,  Lithuanian,  and  Gothic  Languages  :"  the  first 
volume  of  a  new  edition  of  which,  much  enlarged  and 
improved,  has  recently  appeared.  Pott  has  the  honor 
of  first  entering  the  department  of  Lexical  Etymology, 
on  any  broad  scale,  with  the  torch  of  Indo-European 
analogy ;  and  yet  neither  he  nor  any  European  writer 
has  ever  attempted  to  this  day,  to  determine  its  princi- 
ples, or  group  its  facts  into  the  form  of  a  high  and  no- 
ble science.  When,  accordingly,  Etymology  is  spoken 
of  in  this  essay  as  a  science,  it  is  so  ^denominated  from 
deference  to  its  own  inward  claims  to  such  a  desisrna- 
tion;  and  not  as  a  recognition  of  any  attempt,  ever 


226  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    rillLOLOGY. 

made  by  German  philologists  to  construct  its  elements 
into  a  distinct  system.  In  1846  Pott  publislied  a 
work  of  miicli  merit  on  the  language  of  the  Gypsies, 
clearly  establishing  its  membership  in  the  great  Indo- 
European  family  of  languages.  He  has  recently  (1856) 
published  an  additional  work  of  considerable  interest  on 
the  Etymology  of  surnames,  entitled  "  Personennamen 
und  Eamihennamen."  Pott  is  a  man  of  great  erudition 
in  philology,  and  a  critic  of  the  first  class ;  while  being 
also  an  original  investigator,  like  Bopp  and  Grimm,  al- 
though not  on  so  large  a  scale. 

William  Humboldt  in  1835  Avrote  a  learned  and 
philosophical  treatise  on  "  The  different  Modes  of  form- 
ing Human  Speech,"  in  which  he  presented,  with  clear- 
ness and  effect,  a  true  comparative  estimate  of  different 
languages ;  representing  the  Chinese  or  monosyllabic, 
and  the  Indo-European  and  Semitic  or  inflected  lan- 
guages, as  the  two  contrary  poles  of  linguistic  develop- 
ment, and  holding  up  to  honor  the  most  thorough 
critical  method  of  philological  analysis  as  the  only  mode 
of  studying  language,  deserving  of  the  name.  All  such 
early  utterances  of  a  high  sort  in  this  department  of 
study  we  hail  with  delight,  as  they  show  at  least  the 
quality  of  the  men  who  made  them  ;  their  genius,  their 
philosophy,  their  scholarship,  and  the  ideals  which  they 
set  up  before  their  own  minds.  And  in  the  kingdom 
of  mind,  not  as  in  that  of  commerce  and  in  common 
life,  where  men  are  estimated  according  to  their  sue- 


HISTORY    OF  .  MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  227 

cesses,  but  as  in  the  kingdom  of  Gocl,  they  arc  to  he 
judged  to  tlieir  honor  or  their  shame,  according  to 
their  aims  and  their  efforts." 

But  while  in  Germany  the  science  of  philology  was 
thus  rising  to  a  conspicuous  height  before  all  eyes,  in 
France  also  a  few  earnest  devotees  to  its  interests  began 
now  to  appear.  Two  especially  deserve  distinct  men- 
tion, Burnouf  and  EichhofF.  Eugene  Burnouf  published, 
in  1835,  some  of  the  results  of  his  acute  researches  in 
the  Zend,  as  compared  with  the  Sanskrit,  and  estab- 
lished by  careful  induction  the  scale  of  correspondences 
between  them :  showing  that  the  Zend  is  more  like  the 
Sanskrit  than  any  other  language,  and  that  very  often, 
by  merely  changing  the  Zend  letters  into  their  fixed 
Sanskrit  equivalents,  you  may  obtain  the  same  precise 
word  as  in  Sanskrit.  He  extended  accordingly  Grimm's 
law  of  substitutions  and  equivalents,  so  as  to  embrace 
the  Zend  with  the  Sanskrit.  He  also  gave  himself  with 
much  earnestness  to  the  work  of  editing  various  publi- 
cations of  the  Zend,  restoring  in  each  case  the  manu- 
scripts with  critical  'care ;  and  prepared  a  Zend  gram- 
mar, and  was  indeed  strictly  the  founder  of  all  true 
Zend  philology.  E.  G.  EichhofF  published  at  Paris,  in 
1836,  a  work  entitled,  "Parallele  des  Langues  de 
I'Europe  et  de  Tlnde,"  or  "  A  Comparative  view  of  the 
Languages  of  Europe  and  of  India."  This  was  after- 
wards translated  into  German  by  Kaltschmidt,  who 
greatly  admires  his  views,  and  who  published  also  in 


228  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

1 845,  a  second  edition  of  it.  EichhofF's  work  is  designed 
to  present  a  comparative  view  of  tlie  Indo-European 
languages,  both  grammatically  and  verbally,  and  to  be 
at  the  same  time  as  comprehensive  and  condensed  as 
possible.  But,  while  being  well  deserving  of  posses- 
sion, it  is  very  unequal  in  its  merits  in  the  department 
of  verbal  etymology  -.  at  times  rising  to  the  highest 
point  of  excellence,  and  at  others  sinking  below  the 
average  level  of  philological  accuracy  and  skill.  He  is 
so  charmed  with  the  love  of  new  discoveries,  and  even 
of  suppositions  that  look  like  discoveries,  that  his  ety- 
mologies are  of  too  mixed  a  character  to  be  of  uniform 
value.  To  one,  however,  who  will  use  Eichhoff  with 
true  discrimination,  he  will  furnish  real  help  in  the 
study  of  philology.  Since  Burnouf  and  Eichhoff  stand 
together  in  solitary  grandeur,  as  leaders  in  this  new 
science  in  Erance,  it  will  please  the  reader  perhaps  to 
let  Eichhoff  come  forward  and  speak  of  his  plans  in  his 
own  person.  Says  he,  "  '  Who  does  not  love  etymolo- 
gies ?  The  imagination  of  what  scholar  would  not  in- 
voluntarily wander  from  one  enterprise  to  another,  out 
of  one  century  into  another,  in  order  to  find  the  re- 
mains of  a  perished  language ;  remains  which  are  the 
fragments  of  the  people's  history.'  *  These  words," 
(says  Eichhoff,)  "  of  one  of  our  first  scholars  and  most 
ingenious  critics,  strikingly  indicate  the  plan  of  this 
work,  which  proceeds  from  the  double  point  of  view 

*  Le  Clcrc,  the  dean  of  Philosophy  at  Paris. 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  229 

afforded  by  philology  and  history.  These  two  philoso- 
phies march  for\A'ard  in  the  world  with  equal  steps  and 
mutual  support.  The  life  of  a  nation  reveals  itself  in 
its  language :  the  true  picture  of  their  changing  for- 
tunes ;  and,  where  the  history  of  a  people  is  silent,  where 
the  thread  of  tradition  is  broken,  there  the  ancient  gene- 
alogy of  language  gives  us  light,  which  outlives  the 
^^Teck  of  empires,  and  eternizes  the  origin  of  a  people 
and  their  memory.  Language,  the  living  organ  of  so 
many  extinguished  races,  suffices  to  solve  many  enig- 
mas, which  without  it  could  not  be  resolved ;  so  soon 
as  one,  after  obtaining  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
special  speech  of  each  single  nation,  procures  some 
common  measure  of  comparison,  which  makes  them  all 
comprehensible  at  a  glance.  Deeply  buried  in  the 
East,  after  having  ceased  to  be  a  living  speech  for  more 
than  three  thousand  years,  and  being  equally  long  for- 
gotten in  Europe,  a  language  has  been  found,  which,  in 
its  inward  spirit,  in  the  completeness  of  its  forms,  in  its 
riches,  and  especially  in  its  agreement  throughout  with 
our  European  tongues,  is  full  of  wonder.  A  true  com- 
prehension of  the  languages  of  the  world,  is  one  of  the 
necessities  of  our  century ;  and  it  is  no  profitless  task 
to  aid  in  affording  it.  Following  accordingly  the  dic- 
tionary and  the  grammar,  in  the  leading  languages  of 
our  system,  (the  Indo-Em'opean,)  I  have  brought  them 
together  into  one  view,  and  developed  them,  sometimes 
singly  and  sometimes  comparatively,  and  arranged  to- 

16 


230  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

getlier  tlieir  coniponent  parts,  in  a  comprehensive  and 
complete  synopsis."  He  dedicates  his  work  to  "  Chezy, 
the  founder  of  Sanskrit  study  in  France,  and  IMerian, 
the  promoter  of  comparative  philology,"  as  being  in  a 
sense  the  authors  and  guides  of  his  own  thoughts  in 
this  direction.  It  is  pleasant  surely  to  look  through 
even  such  a  loop-hole  into  the  developments  of  French 
scholarship  at  that  time,  and  find  there  the  same  ardor 
in  pursuit,  and  the  same  joy  in  discovery,  which  have 
ever  characterized  the  German  students  of  philology, 
and  indeed  the  students  of  philology  generally  through- 
out the  world.  There  is  in  fact  so  much  of  poetic  ma- 
terial in  this  science,  and  so  much  of  its  inspiration  in 
those  who  pursue  it,  that  they  might  well  be  called  the 
prose-poets  of  the  world. 

But  to  return  to  Germany  again  :  Albert  Giese 
published  in  1834  a  work  upon  the  ^olic  dialect,  of 
great  interest.  It  is  in  this  dialect  that  the  Greek  re- 
tains most  of  its  primitive  character  and  manifests  its 
common  heritage  with  the  Latin,  in  all  the  elements  of 
their  equal  Grseco-Latin  or  Pelasgic  parentage,  Giese 
lived  only  to  pubUsli  himself  the  first  volume  of  his 
work,  the  second  being  pubhshed  by  his  friends,  from 
preparations  for  it  that  he  left  behind  him. 

In  1837  Albert  A.  Benary  gave  to  the  world,  as  the 
result  of  his  critical  studies,  a  work  entitled  "  Die  ro- 
mische  Lautlehrc  sprachvergleichend  dargestellt,"  or  the 
phonetic  principles  of  the  Latin  language  philologically 


HISTORY    OP    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  231 

viewed.     Beside  the  intrinsic  merits  of  this  production 
as  a  fine  specimen  of  thorough  schohirly  research,  it  has 
also  the  honor  of  beinu;  the  first  distinct  work  of  modern 
times  on  phonetics,  not  only  relatively  to  the  Latin,  but 
also  absolutely  in  itself.     In  modern  times  I  have  said, 
for  in  ancient  days  phonology  was  well  understood  by 
Sanskrit  scholars.     He  dwells  on  two  main  points  par- 
ticularly of  the  phonetic  system  of  the  Latin :    diph- 
thongation  and  aspiration.    The  whole  phonetic  system 
of  the  Latin  he  regards  as  consisting  of  five  principal 
features:    1st.   Its  disinclination  to  diphthongs.     2d. 
The  small  range  of  aspiration.     3d.  The  limited  use  of 
consonantal  combinations  in  initial  and  medial  syllables. 
4th.  The  reciprocal  influence  of  vowels  and  consonants 
upon  each  other,  by  their  very  nature  and  constitution. 
5th.  The  weakening  of  end-syllables  under  the  influ- 
ence of  consonants,  as  also  under  that  of  vowels.     The 
first  two  of  the  above  elements  he    discusses  in  this 
work,  so  far  as  yet  published.      In  treating  of  Latin 
diphthongs  he  shows  that  being  in  their  very  construc- 
tion binary,  they  are  composed  always  of  a  fixed  radi- 
cal element,  and  of  a  movable  one  attached  to  it ;  and 
then  divides  them  all  into  two  classes :  those  formed 
by  contraction  and  those  formed  by  Guna.*     Here  he 
unfolds  in  full  philosophic   form  the  principles,  sug- 

*  Guna  means,  in  Sanskrit  gi-aminar,  the  lengthening  and  strength- 
ening of  an  i-  or  u-  sound  by  a  prefixed  short  a-  sound,  by  which  they 
"become  respectively  ai  and  au. 


232     '  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

gested  and  confirmed  by  a  wide  and  full  survey  of  the 
facts  of  the  language,  illustrating  each  step  by  full 
examples.  Under  the  head  of  aspiration  also,  he  is 
very  minute  and  clear  and  interesting.  Any  fuller 
analysis  of  his  work  would  not  be  consistent  with  the 
general  design  and  scope  of  this  essay.  There  is  a 
good  deal  of  valuable  etymological  material,  strown  in- 
cidentally throughout  Benary's  work.  No  Latin  scholar 
can  study  it  without  real  profit,  in  the  way  of  enlarging 
his  conscious  grasp  of  the  analytic  constitution  of  the 
language. 

Albert  Hoefer  published  in  1839  a  volume  enti- 
tled, "  Beitrage  zur  Etymologic  und  vergleichende 
Grammatik  der  Hauptsprachen  des  Indo-Germanischen 
Stammes,"  or  considerations  on  the  etymology  and 
comparative  grammar,  of  the  principal  Indo-German 
languages.  It  is  an  able  original  work  in  the  special 
field  which  it  traverses.  The  whole  vast  scope  of  phi- 
lology embraces  a  wide  range  of  many  related  topics, 
and  touches  language,  phonetics,  ethnography,  chro- 
nology and  cHmatology,  at  so  many  points  and  in  so 
many  ways,  as  to  aff'ord  room  for  an  almost  unlimited 
variety  of  special  investigations  and  results.  Hoefer' s 
work  diff'ers  from  Benary's  in  this,  that  while  Benary 
treats  of  the  special  phonetic  system  of  the  Latin,  he 
spreads  his  inquiries  with  philosophic  exactness  over 
the  whole  field  of  phonetics.  The  two  main  topics 
that  he  discusses  are,  1.  The  philosophy  of  vowels. 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  233 

with  an  investigation  of  the  principles  of  Guna  and. 
Vriddhi,*  and  the  declension-forms  of  the  Sanskrit.  2. 
The  history  of  liquids  in  their  relation  to  vowels  and 
to  consonants. '  To  most  readers  doubtless  there  will 
seem  to  be,  in  the  announcement  of  two  such  topics 
of  investigation,  nothing  suggestive  of  either  light  or 
joy.  It  is  not  he  who,  never  having  climbed  a  moun- 
tain, stands  beneath  and  looks  up  at  its  bold,  bare 
peaks,  that  knows  what  food  the  glad  spectator  can 
there  find  who  has  ascended  to  the  heights  above 
heights,  where  the  clouds  thunder  and  roll  and  break 
at  his  feet,  and  who  gazes  down,  like  one  of  the  watch- 
ers of  the  upper  air,  upon  the  world  of  his  own  former 
home  below. 

Besides  the  writers  of  whom  we  have  hitherto 
spoken,  a  few  other  names  are  deserving  of  special 
mention,  though  with  varying  degrees  of  merit  in  this 
inniiediate  connection. 

H.  L.  Ahrens  wrote  in  1838  on  "the  conjugation 
in  i-u,  in  the  Homeric  dialect."  In  1839  he  published 
his  first  volume  on  the  dialects  of  the  Greek,  which  is 
his  principal  work,  following  it  with  the  second  in 
1843.  The  two  volumes  embrace  the  Jj]olic  and  Doric 
dialects,  which  are  discussed  with  remarkable  ingenuity 
and  research,  and  not  without  reference  to  the  princi- 
ples of  Indo-European  philology. 

Diintzer  also  appeared  at  this  time.     His  principal 

t  Vriddhi  consists  in  prefixing  a  long  a  to  i  or  u. 


234  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

works  are  "  The  Philosophy  of  Latin  Etymology  "  and 
"The  Declension  of  the  Indo-Germanic  Languages." 
Diintzer  is  clear  and  ingenious,  but,  like  most  of  the 
other  writers  already  enumerated,  except  the  first  three 
that  stand  so  high  above  the  rest,  Bopp  and  Pott  and 
Grimm,  has  been  so  surpassed  by  subsequent  writers 
as  to  wear  now  quite  an  antiquated  aspect.  Twenty 
years  in  fact  serve  generally  to  make  scholarship  in  any 
direction  appear  as  old  in  Germany  and  as  well  nigh 
useless,  except  historically,  as  they  do  most  of  our  pe- 
riodical literature  at  home. 

Kaltschmidt,  the  satellite  of  EichhofF,  published  in 
1839  a  Greek  Etymological  dictionary  of  some  merit: 
more,  however,  in  respect  to  the  amount  of  personal 
labor  expended  than  in  respect  to  the  benefit  to  be 
reaped  from  it  by  the  public ;  for  in  the  department 
of  Etymology,  on  which  it  was  specially  intended  to 
throw  a  high  light,  it  is  very  deficient,  being  quite  as 
full  of  fanciful  characteristics  as  of  those  of  real  schol- 
arship. Kaltschmidt  has  less  of  the  standard  charac- 
teristics of  a  real  authority  in  philology,  than  any  other 
name  mentioned  in  this  earliest  group  of  the  imme- 
diate followers  of  the  first  leaders  in  philology. 

Their  writings  had  been  sown  broadcast  over  the 
land,  and  the  precious  seed  had  germinated  in  many 
minds. 

A  new  generation  of  scholars  has  now  come  upon 
the  stage ;  men  who  had  the  advantage  of  starting  in 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  235 

their  studies  where  their  predecessors  had  ended  ;  men 
who  are,  at  this  very  time,  in  the  full  vigor  of  their 
early  manhood. 

Among  these  no  name  is  more  conspicuous  than 
that  of  Lorenz  Diefenbach,  the  former  pupil  of  both 
Bopp  and  Pott,  He  is  a  philologist  of  the  first  class. 
His  chief  works  are  his  "Celtica"  and  his  "  Verglei- 
chendes  Worterbuch  der  Gothischen  Sprache,"  or  com- 
parative dictionary  of  the  Gothic  language,  published 
in  two  volumes,  at  Frankfort,  in  1851,  which  is  a 
standard  contribution,  not  only  to  the  Gothic  language, 
but  also  to  comparative  philology.  It  is  a  vast  cabinet 
of  rare  linguistic  curiosities  :  the  most  extensive  mu- 
seum of  comparative  etymologies  to  be  found  in  the 
world,  not  excepting  in  its  present  state  that  magnifi- 
cent German  dictionary  of  the  Grimms ;  which,  how- 
ever, when  completed,  will  stand  by  itseK,  as  a  vast 
pyramid  of  learning  and  labor,  overshadowing  all  other 
human  productions  in  the  amplitude  of  its  scholarship. 
Diefenbach  is  a  noble  follower  of  noble  guides.  Bopp 
does  the  most  justice  of  them  aU  to  the  Sanskrit  front 
of  this  great  argument :  Pott  to  the  Latin  and  Greek 
side  of  it ;  while  Grimm  and  Diefenbach  bring  up  the 
rear  in  splendid  array  with  the  Gothic  and  the  Celtic. 

August  Schleicher  stands  also  in  the  first  rank  of 
the  more  recent  philologists.  His  principal  works  are 
"Philological  Investigations,"  published  in  1848: 
"  The  Languages  of  Em'ope  in  a  Systematic  View,"  a 


236  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

work  of  much  scholarship  and  interest,  pubhshed  in 
1850  ;  and  also  "  Litauische  Grammatik,''  or  "  A  Lith- 
uanian Grammar  and  Chrestomathy,"  published  in 
1856,  which,  like  Diefenbach's  Gothic  dictionaiy,  and 
Zeuss'  Celtic  grammar,  is  a  splendid  contribution  of 
thorough  original  investigations  to  the  science  of  phi- 
lology. He  is  now  at  work,  and  has  been  for  a  long 
time,  (as  he  announces  in  a  note  to  a  brief  article,  on 
the  history  of  the  Slavic  languages,  in  Kuhn's  "Beitrage 
zur  Sprachforschung,")  on  a  history  of  the  languages 
of  the  Gothic  or  Germanic  family. 

George  Curtius'  name  also  deserves  honorable  men- 
tion here.  He  published  in  1842  a  dissertation  on  the 
"  Formation  of  Greek  Nouns,"  which  was  followed  in 
1846  by  an  admirable  work  on  "The  Formation  of 
the  Tenses  and  Modes  in  Greek  and  Latin,"  containing 
many  fine  specimens  of  philological  analysis  and  argu- 
mentation. Beside  contributing  several  articles  of 
much  interest  to  philological  journals,  he  is  the  author 
of  a  "  Griechische  Schulgrammatik,"  published  in 
1852,  (third  edition,  1857.)  His  most  interesting 
work,  however,  is  his  last,  (1858,)  entitled  "  Grundziige 
der  Griechischen  Etymologic,"  the  first  part  of  which 
only  is  yet  published.  Here,  after  a  fine  introduction 
on  some  interesting  points  connected  with  the  range 
and  limits  of  etymology  as  such,  the  danger  of  false 
analyses  and  of  a  careless  use  of  the  Sanskrit  in  solv- 
ing etymological  difficulties,  euphonic  mutations,  etc.. 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  237 

a  scholarly  view  of  more  than  six  hundred  Greek  roots 
is  presented,  with  their  Sanskrit,  Latin,  Gothic  or  other 
correspondences,  with  brief  notices  of  the  views  of 
other  leading  philologists  confirmatory  or  adverse. 
When  this  work,  which  has  just  arrived  in  this  coun- 
try, is  finished  and  translated  into  English,  as  it  surely 
will  be,  American  scholars  will  have  the  means  at  hand 
of  a  thorough  exploration  and  mastery  of  "  the  ele- 
ments of  Greek  etymology." 

Friedrich  Diez  is  the  author  of  a  "  Grammar  of  the 
Romanic  Languages,"  which  is  the  standard,  supplant- 
ing aU  others  in  this  study.  The  second  edition  of  it, 
enlarged  and  improved,  is  now  passing  through  the 
press.  He  is  an  original  and  thorough  investigator  in 
a  great  field  of  research.  No  writer  has  explored  as 
he  has  the  lingual  riches  of  the  Italian,  Spanish  and 
Erench  languages.  His  etymological  dictionary  also 
of  the  Romanic  languages,  published  in  1853,  is  a  no- 
ble structure,  standing  by  itself  in  solitary  majesty  on 
the  field  that  it  occupies.  A  quotation  from  the  pref- 
ace to  this  dictionary,  will  best  show  his  style  of  mind 
and  of  scholarship.  "  The  object  of  etymology  is,"  he 
says,  "  to  trace  back  a  given  word  to  its  origin.  The 
method  adopted  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  object 
is  not  always  the  same.  There  is,  as  it  is  easy  to  see, 
a  critical  and  an  uncritical  method.  The  uncritical 
draws  its  explanations,  as  a  matter  of  good  luck,  out 
of  a  mere  external  resemblance  of  form,  or  forces  them, 


238  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

where  there  is  httle  resemblance  and  even  entire  vari- 
ance, through  a  mass  of  elements  specially  contrived 
for  the  purpose.  Such  a  faulty  mode  of  procedure,  by 
which,  notwithstanding,  where  wit  and  genius  have 
not  been  wanting,  a  happy  hit  has  been  sometimes 
made,  has  brought  the  whole  science  of  etymology  into 
discredit  with  some ;  while  it  has  commended  itself  to 
others  by  the  ease  of  its  applications :  since  any  one 
without  preparation  for  it  can  enter  upon  such  a  work. 
The  former  err  in  their  aversion,  and  the  latter  in  their 
inclination  to  it.  In  contrariety  to  the  uncritical  method, 
the  critical  acts  in  subordination  to  the  well-discovered 
principles  and  rules  of  phonology,  so  as  not  to  swerve 
a  foot's  breadth  from  them,  unless  plain,  actual  excep- 
tions shall  justify  it.  It  strives  to  follow  the  genius  of 
the  language  itself,  and  to  draw  out  from  its  bosom  its 
own  secrets.  It  takes  a  careful  gauge  of  each  letter, 
and  seeks  to  discover  the  value  that  attaches  to  it  in 
each  position.  And  yet  how  little  often  can  it  accom- 
plish !  How  doubtful  are  its  results !  The  highest 
point  reached  by  the  etymologist,  is  the  conscioyisness 
of  having  acted  scientifically.  For  the  attainment  of 
absolute  certainty  he  has  no  security.  Some  insignifi- 
cant new  thing  may  hurl  down  froxn  him  under  his 
feet,  to  his  mortification,  a  result  previously  gained  with 
great  labor.  This  wiU  happen  to  him  in  every  extended 
investigation :  it  is  indeed  among  the  daily  experiences 
of  the  etymologist,  from  which  even  the  most  keen- 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  239 

eyed  are  not  free.  Therefore,  modesty!  even  when 
every  fact  seems  to  support  our  theories."  Here  is  pre- 
sented in  full  view  a  self-drawn  pictm'e  of  the  patient, 
scholarly,  earnest  spirit  of  the  scientific  etymologist. 
How  diff'erent  from  that  of  the  ancient  empirical  dealers 
in  words  as  cheap,  frivolous  wares  !  It  is  when  study- 
ing such  works  as  his  and  Bopp's,  Grimm's,  Pott's  and 
Diefenbach's,  that  one  stands  on  the  summits  of  modern 
philology,  where  the  whole  field  of  its  wonders  lies 
spread  out  before  him. 

Germany  is  at  the  present  moment  full  of  earnest 
investigators,  in  every  part  of  the  whole  wide  field  of 
philology.  In  every  university  there  is,  as  there  ought 
to  be,  a  provision  for  instruction  in  comparative  phi- 
lology. This  new  science  is  not  only  giving  law  to 
grammar,  lexicography,  classical  study  and  linguistic 
research,  but  also  to  history  and  ethnography.  Under 
its  light  the  history  of  Rome  has  been  rewritten  with 
new  clearness  and  beauty  by  Theodore  Mommsen,  as 
has  that  of  Greece  by  Ernst  Curtius ;  and  under  its  in- 
fluence must  om'  own  histories  of  the  classical  past  be 
written  still  again  for  the  proper  illumination  of  Eng- 
lish and  American  scholarship, 

Ernst  Curtius  is,  like  George  Curtius,  a  philologist 
of  high  attainments.  He  resided  for  four  years  in 
Greece,  for  the  purpose  of  better  pursuing  his  researches 
into  the  history  of  Greece.  He  was  a  pupil  of  O.  Miiller, 
and  has  been  the  private  Tutor  of  Prince  Erederic  Wil- 


240  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

liam.  He  is  one  of  the  finest  living  writers  of  Ger- 
many. He  endeavors,  both  scientifically  and  studiously, 
to  open  the  myths  of  the  legendary  periods  of  ancient 
history,  and  to  extract  the  hidden  kernel  of  their  real 
truth;  while  Mommsen  rejects  them  altogether,  and 
falls  back  on  the  mere  historic  guidance  to  be  obtained 
from  the  disentombed  remains  of  language,  in  the 
archaic  periods  of  the  past.  Tor  ourselves,  we  must 
say,  that  we  sympathize  rather  with  Curtius  than  with 
Mommsen,  in  his  conceptions  of  the  intrinsic  value  of 
the  early  legends  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

The  great  investigators,  who  have  most  opened  the 
wonders  of  philology  to  the  eyes  of  their  admiring 
countrymen,  are  still  living,  to  marvel  at  the  effect  of 
their  labors  upon  their  age  :  beholding  changes  quite  as 
great  in  the  community  of  scholars  to  which  they  be- 
long, as  the  pioneers  of  the  west  have  seen,  in  the  brief 
but  brilliant  history  of  our  new  settlements.  Three 
works  especially  of  those  already  mentioned,  made  a 
distinct  epoch  by  then'  great  influence  each  by  itself  on 
the  public  mind  of  Germany :  Erederic  Schlegel's  Essay 
on  the  Speech  and  Philosophy  of  the  Indians  ;  Grimm's 
Teutonic  Grammar,  and  Bopp's  Comparative  Grammar. 
Most  of  the  great  philologists  of  Germany  appear  more 
or  less  frequently  as  the  authors  of  occasional  papers, 
in  the  "  Zeitschrift  fiir  vergleichende  Sprachforschung," 
&c.,  or  "  Journal  of  comparative  Philology  in  the  De- 
partment of  the  German,  Greek,  and  Latin  Languages," 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY,  241 

now  in  its  seventh  year ;  edited  at  first  by  Theodore 
Aufrecht  and  Adalbert  Kuhn,  but  now  by  Kuhn  alone, 
and  published  every  two  months  at  Berlin.  In  this 
journal,  the  last  and  best  results  of  the  most  recent  in- 
vestigations appear,  in  a  condensed  form.  Here  tlie 
delighted  reader  meets  with  frequency  with  such  men, 
in  high  discourse,  as  Bopp,  Grimm,  Pott,  Aufrecht, 
Kuhn,  KirchhofF,  Benary,  Curtius,  Schleicher,  Ebel, 
Ahrens,  Benfey,  Forstemann  a  Danish  scholar,  and 
many  others  of  the  same  spirit,  if  not  yet  of  the  same 
reputation.  This  journal  will  be  welcom.ed,  as  a  friend 
whose  face  is  full  of  light,  by  every  earnest  student  of 
its  contents. 

Aufrecht  and  Kirchhoff  have  recently  prepared  in 
combination  a  work  of  high  critical  cpialities,  entitled 
"  Die  umbrischen  Sprachdenkmaler,"  or  "The  Remains 
of  the  Umbrian  Language,"  published  in  1851,  by 
which  much  light  is  thrown  on  the  early  Latin.  It 
consists  of  an  explanation  of  the  Eugubine  tables,  and 
of  the  various  remains  of  the  Umbrian  still  to  be 
found,  which  are  treated  in  the  most  careful  elaborate 
way. 

Benfey  is  learned  and  often  exceedingly  ingenious, 
and,  like  all  such  minds  in  other  fields,  exceedingly 
venturesome  also  at  times,  and  so,  quite  unsafe  as  a 
guide  to  a  novice.  He  has  published  a  Greek  Etymo- 
logical Dictionary,  and  also  a  Sanskrit  grammar  not 


242  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

equal  to  Bopp's  tliough  succeeding  it,  which  still  re- 
mains the  standard  in  this  study. 

Heyse  has  written  a  work  on  "  The  Philosophy  of 
Language,"  well  deserving  perusal :  it  is  thoroughly 
philological  in  its  type.  Tor  a  compendious  scientific 
suiTcy  of  the  facts  and  principles  of  philology,  in  its 
broad  general  relations  historically,  phonologically, 
grammatically  and  lexically,  it  is,  for  so  brief  a  work, 
one  of  great  worth  to  the  student ;  and  not  only  quite 
superior  to  Rapp,  but  unequalled  yet  by  any  other  in  the 
same  field.  From  him  and  Schleicher,  if  he  can  obtain 
no  more  helps  to  philological  information,  the  young  stu- 
dent in  this  charming  field  of  investigation  can  pro- 
cure a  very  good  outfit  of  facts  and  principles,  for  wider 
and  higher  attainments,  whenever  means  or  opportu- 
nity can  be  secured.  Heyse  is  the  author  also  of  a 
German  dictionary,  wdiich,  for  ordinary  use,  not  only 
for  purposes  of  exegesis,  but  also  of  etymology,  is  of 
high  value.  Grimm  says  indeed  of  it,  in  the  introduc- 
tion to  his  own  great  national  dictionary,  what  he  does 
also  of  all  others  in  the  same  field,  that  he  has  brought 
little  if  any  thing  new  to  the  previous  stock  of  knowl- 
edge possessed  by  the  learned.  But,  while  this  is  true, 
it  is  also  true  that  he  has  thoroughly  gathered  together 
and  methodized  the  various  results  of  the  most  ad- 
vanced scholarship  of  his  day ;  and,  while  the  honor  is 
not  so  great  to  him,  for  brilliancy  of  intellect,  as  that 
of  being  a  new  discoverer,  the  advantage  is  very  great 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  243 

to  others,  who  obtain  at  his  hands  what  they  would 
have  otherwise  to  search  long  and  hard  to  obtain  from 
many  som'ces. 

The  philological  acumen  and  attainments  of  Adal- 
bert Kuhn,  although  of  the  highest  sort,  have  been  ex- 
hibited thus  far  chiefly  in  brief  but  sterling  articles,  a 
large  munber  of  which  have  appeared  in  the  "  Zeit- 
schrift"  which  he  edits.  He  seems  to  be  quite  objec- 
tive in  his  aims  and  full  of  a  spirit  of  usefulness.  He 
does  not  wait  for  great  occasions,  or  feel  that  when  he 
acts  he  must  move  in  state,  and  either  do  some  great 
deed  or  do  none  at  all.  He  appears  on  the  contrary 
always  intent  on  filling  up  that  which  is  behind,  and 
ever  scattering  the  new  light  to  others  that  has  greeted 
his  own  vision.  Albrecht  Weber,  Professor  of  Sanskrit 
in  the  University  of  Berlin,  is  one  of  the  first  Sanskrit 
scholars  in  Gennany.  He  is  the  conductor  of  a  periodi- 
cal called  "  Indische  Studien,"  now  numbering  four  vol- 
umes, containing  various  interesting  articles  on  Indian 
literature  of  value  particularly  to  Sanskrit  scholars  as 
such.  He  is  also  the  author  of  a  collection  of  brief  ar- 
ticles, entitled  "  Indische  Skizzen,"  consisting  of  a 
sketch  of  "  the  recent  investigations  on  ancient  India," 
an  article  "  on  Buddhism,"  another  on  "  the  connec- 
tions of  India  with  the  lands  in  the  west ; "  and  a 
fourth  on  "  the  Semitic  origin  of  the  Sanskrit  alphabet." 
Weber  ranks  for  character  with  Curtius,  Kuhn  and 
Schleicher. 


244  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

Rapp,  professor  at  Tubingen,  has  published  recently 
in  three  parts  a  work  which  he  entitles  "  Grundriss  der 
Grammatik,"  or  "  An  Outline  of  the  Grammar  of  the 
Indo-European  Family  of  Languages."     He  is  ingeni- 
ous and  learned.    One  of  the  main  defects  of  this  book 
is  his  adoption  of  phonographic  equivalents  for  both 
simple  and  compound  vowel-sounds  in   different  lan- 
guages: turning  every  language  to  the  eye  into  the 
same  form  that  it  has  to  the  ear,  so  that  not  one  of  the 
many  languages  compared  appears  in  its  own  home- 
dress  and  with  its  own  native  mien ;  but  they  are  all, 
with  their  different  stature,  complexion,  airs  and  mo- 
tions, exhibited  in  one  uniform,  homely  phonetic  garb. 
It  seems  strange  to  think  by  what  arbitrary  laws  of 
taste  or  criticism,  a  scholar  could  have  persuaded  him- 
self to  undertake  such  a  system  of  wholesale  violence  to 
those  old  familiar  languages,  on  whose  faces,  as  on  that 
of  the  moon  at  night,  so  many  loving  eyes  have  looked 
with  admiration,  in  all  ages.    In  no  way  could  he  have 
made  himseK  more  unintelligible  to  a  beginner,  or  more 
distasteful  to  one  who  had  passed  through  his  novitiate 
in   philology.      Two  classes  of  minds  relish  phonog- 
raphy :    those   who,  being    satisfied    ^Yith    only   inci- 
dental superficial  views  and  general  outlines  instead 
of  minute    details,   delight   in    saving   all   the    labor 
of  thought  that  they  can  ;  and  those  that  have  such  an 
intense  love  of  the  beauty  of  abstract  order,  that,  for  the 
sake  of  its  gratification,  they  are  •walling  to  see  the  ancient, 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  245 

well  known,  beloved  forms  of  words  broken  to  pieces, 
in  order  that  they  may  be  reduced  to  their  simple,  ulti- 
mate, radical  type.  Many,  indeed,  would  greatly  re- 
joice to  possess  a  grand  scientific  dictionary,  composed 
of  the  elementary  themes  of  words,  with  a  synoptical 
view  of  the  variations  more  or  less  from  them  in  dif- 
ferent languages,  arranged  in  true  philological  order ; 
and  doubtless,  when  philology  has  attained  its  full  de- 
velopment, such  a  dictionary  will  be  prepared.  But 
even  then  phonography  will  not  furbish  the  torch,  that 
shdl  illuminate  to  the  scholar's  eyes  the  pages  that  will 
contain  the  record.  In  the  same  spirit  of  unholy  free- 
dom with  which  Rapp  has  thus  handled  the  sacred; 
forms  of  words  that  have  come  down  to  us,  unscathed! 
by  time  or  human  conflict,  from  the  far-off  past,  he  has 
also  undertaken  to  build  up  a  sort  of  Cyclopean  struc- 
ture of  his  own  fancies,  far  back  in  that  unknown^ 
ante-historic  period,  when  the  Sanskrit  itself  had  not 
yet  appeared  upon  the  earth.  From  a  comparison  of 
kindred  forms  of  the  same  radical  in  different  lan- 
guages, he  finds  among  them  what  he  deems  a  prepon- 
derance of  authority  for  a  given  elementary  constitution 
of  the  word,  and  from  such  data  makes  the  majority 
absolute  witnesses,  over  a  stifled  minority,  about  the 
formative  necessary  stem  of  the  word,  in  that  original 
mother-tongue.  Indeed,  his  whole  aim  terminates  in 
a  vain  efiPort  to  constitute  his  own  guesses,  by  the  aid 

of  as  many  phonographic  correspondents  as  possible, 

IT 


246  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

into  the  framework  of  the  first  language  of  the  world. 
In  the  realms  of  science  how  absurd  are  such  structures, 
built  up  of  mere  empty  suppositions  !  nor  are  they  re- 
lieved of  their  unsatisfactoriness  by  the  prefatory  re- 
mark with  which  he  introduces  them,  that  they  are  the 
results  of  many  years  of  devoted  study.  Presumptions, 
of  even  many  years'  quarrying,  are  not  the  stones  of 
which  to  build  any  part  of  the  temple  of  science.  Rapp 
and  Diez  represent  in  many  things  two  opposite  poles 
of  scholarly  charapter:  the  one  bestowing  too  much 
honor  on  mere  fancies  for  their  novelty  or  beauty,  and 
the  other  rejecting  them  at  once,  with  sharp  logical 
precision  amounting  almost  to  critical  vengeance. 
Rapp  is  pithy  and  often  witty,  and,  like  most  wits, 
greatly  pleased  with  a  new  conceit.  As  one  incidental 
specimen  of  this  trait  of  his  character,  among  many, 
consider  his  classification*  of  diphthongs. 

*  "  There  are,"  he  says,  "  two  classes  of  them.  I  call  it  a  genuine 
diphthong  when  the  movement  is  from  the  central  a  towards  the  circum- 
ference, and  indeed  in  the  first  place  in  the  direction  from  a  to  i.  Here 
lie  the  diphthongs  te,  ei,  commonly  written  ei,  ai  and  the  nasal  a? ;  on 
the  way  from  a  towards  u,  ao  eu  (commonly  written  ou),  au  and  the 
nasal  ao  ;  and  on  the  middle  line  from  a  to  ii,  ao,  eli.  ail  and  the  nasal 
ao.  A  special  kind  of  genuine  diphthongs  consists  of  those  which  make 
a  lateral  movement  from  the  negative  to  the  positive  side  as  ae,  oe,  ai, 
oi,  ail,  oil.  ui  and  the  nasal  oe.  The  second  principal  kind  make  a  back- 
ward movement,  from  the  circumference  towards  the  centre ;  and  are 
called  illegitimate  or  deceitful  diphthongs,  and  are  somewhat  inflexible 
and  the  first  sound  is  somewhat  prolonged,  so  that  they  incline  towards 
a  triphthong,  &c.,  &c.  To  some  undoubtedly  all  this  will  appear  very 
clear  and  beautiful ;  but  to  the  apprehension  of  the  author  that  light  is 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY,  247 

Ernst  August  Fritsch  wrote  in  1833,  on  the  oblique 
cases  and  prepositions  in  Greek,  and  afterwards  several 
treatises  on  different  grammatical  points,  as  the  forma- 
tion of  tenses,  modes  and  oblique  cases,  but  his  work 
of  chief  merit  is  his  last :  "  A  Comparative  Treatment 
of  Latin  and  Greek  Particles,"  the  first  part  published 
in  1856,  and  the  second  in  1858.  In  this  he  discusses 
the  etymology  of  the  adverbs,  conjunctions  and  suffixes 
of  these  languages.  It  is  the  best  treatise  to  be  found 
upon  this  subject,  and  much  excels  Dilntzer  in  this 
same  field.  This  part  of  Bopp's  grammar  also  is  one 
of  its  most  interesting  parts,  as,  indeed,  it  is  of  the  new 
philology  generally ;  since  its  testimony  is  so  minute 
and  unequivocal  to  the  truth  of  its  great  leading 
positions.  In  all  the  principal  works  of  philology,  that 
appear  now  from  time  to  time^  the  department  of  pho- 
netics claims  a  distinct  and  full  representation.  The 
authors,  who  have  treated  it  most  fully  in  a  separate 
form,  are  Benary  and  lioefer.  In  the  nevv^  edition  of 
Bopp's  grammar,  special  attention  is  devoted  to  it  at 
the  outset,  as  is  also  in  Rapp's.  It  will  indeed  force  it- 
self into  notice  everywhere,  in  all  true  philology ;  for 
its  connections  are  vital  with  it  in  every  part  of  its 
framework. 

To  present  a  still  longer  catalogue  of  names  in  thif 

most  desirable  on  all  subjects,  that  serves  best  to  reveal  them  as  they 
are,  instead  of  bedizening  the  eye  with  its  own  marvellous  bril- 
liancy. 


248  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

connection  would  be  tedious,  as  it  would  be  without 
profit ;  for  in  those  already  detailed,  the  elements  of 
philological  study  have  been  sufficiently  indicated,  as 
well  as  both  the  modes  in  which  and  the  men  by  whom 
it  has  been  brought  to  its  present  advanced  stage. 

The  history  of  Indo-European  philology  in  Eng- 
land is  very  briefly  written.  A  few  names  describe  the 
narrow  orbit  of  its  development.  Beside  the  first 
scholars  already  mentioned  as  so  earnest  in  making  the 
Sanskrit  known  to  their  countrymen,  as  Sir  William 
Jones,  Wilkins,  Colebrooke  and  Wilson,  the  list  of 
more  recent  authors  in  modem  philology  is  equally 
limited  in  number.  They  are  all  told,  but  these  few : 
Prichard,  Rosen,  Donaldson,  Gamett,  Winning,  Max 
Miiller  and  Bunsen,  the  last  two  of  whom  are  Germans, 
though  writing  in  England  and  in  the  Enghsh  language, 
as  was  also  Rosen. 

James  C.  Prichard,  M.  D.,  a  practising  English 
physician,  was  a  man  of  good  natural  endowments,  and 
earnestly  devoted  to  thorough  philosophical  and  philo- 
logical research.  His  one  great  idea  was  to  establish, 
if  possible,  the  unity  of  the  race.  He  pubhshed  ac- 
cordingly an  essay  (in  1808)  on  the  varieties  of  man- 
kind, in  which  he  first  made  himself  favorably  known 
as  a  philosophical  wi'iter.  This  he  enlarged  from  time 
to  time  in  successive  editions,  until  in  the  last  (1836- 
1847)  it  had  swollen  into  the  five  large  volumes  enti- 
tled "  Researches  into  the  Physical  History  of  Man- 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  249 

kind."  The  one  work,  on  which  his  fame  specially 
rests  among  scholars,  is  that  denominated  "  The  East- 
ern Origin  of  the  Celtic  Nations  proved  by  a  Com- 
parison of  their  Dialects  with  the  Sanskrit,  Greek, 
Latin  and  Teutonic  Languages ;"  which  was  published 
in  1831  as  a  supplement  to  "The  Researches"  above- 
mentioned.  He  is  minute  and  thorough  in  this  work, 
in  the  comparison  of  Celtic,  Sanskrit,  Latin  and  Greek 
themes  and  flexion-endings,  both  formally  and  euphoni- 
cally,  and  his  labors  in  this  direction  have  a  high  schol- 
arly value.  Like  Rask  and  Burnouf,  Prichard  was  re- 
moved prematurely  from  his  labors  on  earth ;  but  his 
memory,  like  theirs,  will  not  perish. 

Dr.  r.  Rosen,  a  pupil  of  Bopp,  was  for  many  years 
Professor  of  Sanskrit  in  the  University  of  London.  The 
round  of  his  labors  and  services  seems  to  have  been 
filled  up  with  practical  instructions  in  philology  to  his 
pupils,  brief  articles  in  the  Penny  Cyclopaedia  of  Lon- 
don, and  the  translation  of  the  first  eighth  part  of  the 
Rigveda,  which  was  published  in  1838,  and  formed  a 
new  epoch  in  Sanskrit  studies  throughout  the  world. 
Previous  translations  of  Indian  literature  had  repre- 
sented only  the  later  and  somewhat  degenerate  periods 
of  Sanskrit  development ;  but  now  the  mine  of  Vedic 
thought,  as  well  as  that  of  its  distinct  dialectic  forms, 
was  struck ;  and  all  Europe  has  been  ever  since  ablaze 
with  interest  in  this  new  direction. 

Donaldson  has  carefully  studied  grammar,  language, 


250  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

and  history,  in  the  hght  of  Indo-European  philology ; 
and  has  felt,  like  every  one  else  who  has  so  studied 
them,  an  almost  irresistible  impulse  to  communicate 
the  pleasure  experienced  by  himself,  as  widely  as  pos- 
sible, unto  others.  Such  a  fire  cannot  easily  be  kept 
shut  up  within  one's  bones.  He  has  accordingly 
written  a  book  entitled  "  VaiTonianus,"  on  the  history 
and  structiu-e  of  the  Latin  language,  and  another  of 
similar  natui-e  upon  the  Greek,  entitled  the  "  New 
Cratylus,"  and  both  a  Latin  and  Greek  grammar  for 
schools,  of  which  the  latter  is  decidedly  the  better, 
being  built  up  more  fully  in  its  ground-forms  on  the 
basis  of  thorough  philological  principles.  Donaldson 
is  both  learned  and  ingenious,  but  at  the  same  time 
often  fanciful.  He  has  indeed  fulfilled  no  mean  office, 
in  acting  as  an  usher,  to  introduce  the  new  philology 
to  the  acquaintance  of  so  many  English  and  American 
minds.  He  has  added  little,  however,  to  the  world's 
general  knowledge  of  either  its  facts  or  principles  :  while 
he  is,  on  the  contrary,  chargeable  with  the  fault  of 
needlessly  leaving  many  parts  of  this  great  science  in  a 
state  of  very  learned  obscurity.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
any  one  who  does  not  rise  in  his  scholarship  above  the 
horizon  of  his  works,  so  as  to  be  able  to  look  down 
critically  upon  them  from  a  higher  point  of  view,  can 
fail  to  feel,  as  the  priest  of  ancient  Egypt  made  the 
crowd  that  stood  wondering  without  feel,  in  their  day, 
that  there  must  be  a  veil  over  the  truths  on  which  they 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  251 

most  long  to  gaze  with  clear,  full  vision.  To  those 
who  adore  mystery  for  its  inherent  beauty,  this  may  be 
acceptable ;  but  not  to  those  who  believe  that  truth  is 
the  proper  ahment  of  the  human  mind,  and  that,  then, 
it  is  most  adapted  to  make  it  grow  to  all  nobleness  of 
stature  and  of  strength,  when  it  is  most  unmixed  with 
other  elements.  And  Donaldson  seems  to  see  the  re- 
flection of  his  own  image  from  his  works,  through  the 
same  haze  in  which  he  has  invested  many  of  the  treas- 
m-es  of  philology  to  the  eyes  of  his  readers.  He  is 
guilty  of  the  sin, -deemed  so  unpardonable  in  an  author, 
of  public  self-praise.  A  single  extract  or  two  will  ex- 
hibit it  in  all  its  fulness,  especially  to  one  who  realizes, 
from  the  small  number  of  English  scholars  in  this  field, 
how  absolutely  his  language  must  be  understood  as  re- 
ferring to  himself.  In  speaking  of  the  progress  of 
philology  in  England,  he  says :  "  We  can  point  to  con- 
ceptions more  original,  and  to  results  more  important 
than  any  which  have  signalized  the  efforts  of  the 
learned  elsewhere.  It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  we  had 
great  advantages  at  starting,  and  that  it  would  have 
been  very  disgraceful  if  we  had  not  learned  to  profit  by 
them.""*  So  also  (on  page  39  of  the  same  work)  he 
says,  "  Our  apprenticeship  to  German  philology  has 
ended  in  producing  a  number  of  original  workmen,  at 
least  equal  to  a  majority  of  those  in  whose  school  they 
had  been  trained."     In  connection  with  the  above  ex- 

*  New  Cratylus,  2d  Edit.  p.  45. 


252  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

tracts,  the  reader  should  peruse  at  the  same  time  his 
exquisite  tirade  (pp.  35,  G,  7.)  upon  the  Germans, 
which  he  concludes  with  this  remark,  "  that  German 
scholars  limit  their  chances  of  improvement  by  the  nar- 
row boimdary  of  their  own  nationality  ;  and  that  conse- 
quently they  are  not  more  favorably  situated  than  our 
English  scholars  were,  some  forty  years  since."  Was 
ever  a  wholesale  slaughter  of  a  whole  nation  of  scholars 
committed  in  such  cool  blood  and  with  such  self-gratu- 
latory  satisfaction  ?  Instead  of  making  fresh  inductions 
and  generalizations  for  himself,  like  Bopp  and  Grimm 
and  Diefenbach,  he  has  merely  acted  the  part  of  a 
theorist,  in  weaving  out  of  the  materials  furnished  him 
by  others  the  web  of  his  own  philosophy ;  while  work- 
ing on  it  at  times  also  figures  of  the  most  unreal  and 
fantastic  shape. 

Winning,  although  somewhat  praised  by  Donald- 
son, from  want  of  other  compeers  in  this  great  study, 
was  but  a  writer  of  the  third  class  for  merit,  as  Don- 
aldson himself  is  but  of  the  second.  He  directly  con- 
tradicts, in  the  latter  part  of  his  work,  (published  in 
1838,)  the  positions  which  he  formally  took  and  de- 
fended in  the  first  part ;  and  while  we  praise  him  for 
his  straightforwardness,  in  openly  declaring  the  change 
that  had  really  occurred  in  his  views,  this  is  all  which 
we  can  possibly  admire.  He  should  have  rewritten  it 
at  once,  so  as  to  make  it  throughout  harmonious  Avith 
itself.     jS'o  true  scholar  will  thus  pilfer  the  time  and 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  253 

comfort  of  his  reader,  to  whom  such  treachery  is  the 
same,  as  to  a  traveller  would  be  that  of  a  guide,  who 
should  lead  him  for  a  long  time  in  a  direction  exactly 
opposite  to  that  in  which  he  ought  to  go,  and  at  last, 
after  many  a  weary  hour,  suddenly  inform  him  that  all 
his  toil  and  patience  hitherto  had  been  expended  but  in 
vain.  And  now  hear  him  honestly  stultify  himself. 
He  says,  (p.  160,)  after  having,  through  the  long  track 
of  nearly  one  hundred  pages,  maintained  the  contrary, 
"  Although  I  now  attach  not  the  slightest  historical  im- 
portance to  the  division  of  the  European  languages  into 
Median*  and  Persian,  yet  it  is  still  evident  that  there 

*  It  will  amuse  the  philological  reader  to  see  his  "  table  of  lan- 
guages."   Behold  it. 

Iranian. 

Sanskrit,  Zend,  Persian. 

I.  Irano-Indian. 
Sanskrit,  Hindustanee,  Bengalee. 

II.  Irano-Europeax. 

Zend,  Persian,  Slavonian,  Lithuanian,  German,  Celtic. 

1.  Slavonian. 

Russian,  Servian,  Croatian,  Wendish. 

2.  Lithuanian. 

Lithuanian,  Lettish,  Old  Prussian,  Latin  (!). 

3.  German. 

(1.)  Lower  German. 

Gothic,  Scandinavian,  Dutch.  English,  &c. 

(2.)  Upper  German. 

Old,  Middle  and  New  High  German,  Greek  (!). 

4.  Celtic. 

Erse,  Ga3lic,  Welsh,  Bas  Breton,  Basque. 

Of  these   he    considered    the  Slavonian,   Lithuanian,   and  Lower 

German  as  of  Median  origin,  and   the  Upper  German  as  of  Pcr>ian ; 

while,  as  to  the  Celtic,  he  regarded  the  Erse,  Gii^lic  and  IManx  as  Medo- 

Celticj  but  the  "Welsh,  Cornish  and  Bas  Breton,  as  Perso-Celtic. 


254  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

were  three  oiiginal  Iranian  dialects,  viz. :  Sanskiit, 
Zend,  and  some  third  language  to  which  the  name  of 
Persian  seems  not  appropriate." 

In  a  subsequent  part  of  his  work  he  undertakes  to 
show  learnedly  from  various  Rabbinical  surmises  and 
statements,  from  Kimchi  and  others,  that  the  original 
Tuscans  were  but  a  set  of  emigrant  Edomites.  "  The 
summary  of  these  statements  is,"  he  says,  "  that  a  peo- 
ple speaking  a  Semitic  idiom  came  by  sea,  and  landed 
on  the  south-west  coast  of  Italy;  that  they  became 
powerful  there,  and  proceeding  northward  took  posses- 
sion of  Rome,  which  first  attained  to  greatness  under 
their  dominion.  It  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck  with 
the  close  coincidence  of  this  statement  with  the  native 
Roman  account,  &c."  (p.  198.)  This  extract  occurs  in 
a  chapter  entitled  "  The  Origin  and  Prophetic  Destiny 
of  the  Tuscans,"  to  which  sixty  pages  of  learned  non- 
sense are  devoted ;  and  to  any  one  who  wishes  to  walk 
up  and  down  in  the  fog  that  the  interpreters  of  prophecy 
have  such  special  skill  in  spreading  about  them,  here  is 
an  opportunity  such  as  is  seldom  offered.  In  another 
chapter  he  resolves  the  Pelasgians  into  an  Egyptian  or 
Hamite  race,  as,  in  the  chapter  on  the  Tuscans,  he  also 
classifies  them  and  the  Romans  and  Corinthians  under 
the  same  description.  But  enough  of  such  philological 
drivel.  The  reader  will  forgive  so  many  extracts,  if  he 
remembers  that  the  object  in  quoting  them  is  only  to 
show  the  actual  state  of  real  philological  science  within 
the  bounds  of  English  authorship. 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGT.  255 

Garnett  lias  written  several  articles  of  merit  for  the 
London  Philological  Society,  which  have  been  recently 
grouped  together  in  a  volume  by  his  son.  They  are 
interesting  ;  but  relate  chiefly  to  the  Teutonic  elements 
and  aspects  of  our  language. 

Amidst  such  meagre  demonstrations  of  English 
scholarship  in  the  department  of  Indo-European  Phi- 
lology, it  is  pleasant  to  be  able  to  add  tlie  name  of  one, 
in  England  though  not  of  it,  Max  Miiller,  professor  of 
European  languages  and  literature  at  Oxford,  who  is  at 
once  an  original  investigator  of  its  wonders,  and  able  to 
set  forth  what  others  have  done  and  to  make  the  results 
of  their  labors  available  to  the  public.  His  leading 
work  is  entitled  "  The  Languages  of  the  Seat  of  War 
in  the  East  with  a  Survey  of  the  three  Eamilies  of 
Languages,  Semitic,  Arian,  and  Turanian  ;"  a  second 
and  much  improved  edition  of  which  was  published  in 
1855.  It  was  prepared  in  answer  to  a  formal  request 
by  an  officer  of  the  English  Government  in  1854,  in 
connection  with  the  siege  of  Sebastopol,  "  that  he 
would  prepare  at  once  a  treatise  on  the  languages  spoken 
in  the  East ;  theu'  general  character  and  structure, 
their  alphabets,  the  classes  of  people  by  whom  they 
were  spoken,  and  the  family  to  which  they  belong." 
Plis  treatise,  though  brief,  is  one  of  great  interest. 

Chevalier  Bunsen  is  himself  but  little  of  a  philolo- 
gist ;  but  in  his  "  Philosophy  of  History,"  he  has 
devoted  a  large  part  of  the  first  volume  to  treatises  on 


256  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

the  last  results  of  philological  research,  by  Max  Miiller, 
and  Aufrecht,  who  has  been  for  some  years  in  Oxford. 
Bimsen  is  an  earnest  religious  thinker,  and  has  busied 
himself  with  the  progress  of  theology,  rather  as  a  general 
scholar,  than  as  one  of  special  earnestness  in  this  one 
direction.  In  the  present  low  state  of  philological 
learning  in  England,  he  seems  determined  to  obtain  the 
best  light  that  he  can ;  and  then  to  hold  it  up,  high 
and  bright,  Avith  all  eagerness  in  the  face  of  the  age.* 

*  There  is  a  group  of  a  few  celebrated  English  writers  on  language, 
grammar,  etymology  and  words,  that  ought  to  be  mentioned  here,  both 
by  way  of  honor  for  their  merit,  and  for  the  sake  of  being  clearly  dis- 
criminated as  a  class,  from  those  spoken  of  in  the  text.  They  are 
Harris,  Ilorne  Tooke.  Kemble,  Bosworth,  Richardson,  Turner,  Latham, 
and  Trench.  John  Harris  published  in  1751  a  book  of  much  learning 
and  talent,  entitled,  "  Hermes,"  pertaining  to  matters  of  grammatical 
philosophy,  which  had  great  influence  and  estimation  in  its  day,  as  its 
basis  and  bearings  were  classical.  Home  Tooke,  whose  views  were 
opposite  to  those  of  Harris,  presented  in  his  '•  Diversions  of  Purley," 
amid  a  good  many  mere  speculations,  whose  only  value  was  their  in- 
genuity, some  very  important  facts  and  principles,  concerning  the  Teu- 
tonic features  of  Enghsh  etymology.  He  never  came  for  a  moment, 
however,  into  the  neighborhood  of  the  idea  of  a  scientific  comparison 
of  languages  one  with  the  other. 

Kemble,  Richardson,  Bosworth  and  Turner,  have  all  wrought  and 
written  well  on  the  English,  as  a  great  Anglo-Saxon  structure :  the 
first  two  as  general  writers  on  the  language  and  the  last  two  as  lexi- 
cographers. Latham  has,  in  his  latest  edition  of  "  The  English  lan- 
guage," both  supplemented  and  supplanted  most  previous  authors 
hitherto  on  the  Teutonic  features  and  philosophy  of  our  language. 

Rev.  Richard  C.  Trench,  Professor  of  King's  College,  London,  has 
made  himself  more  known  in  this  country  than  any  other  one  as  a 
writer  on  "the  study  of  words."  Many  of  our  common  words  he 
opens  to  view,  and  shows  them  to  contain  poetical,  ethical  and  historical 
elements  of  great  interest.     His  work  is,  however,  as  it  was  designed 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  257 

And  what  can  we  say  of  our  own  land,  great  in 
every  thing  but  scholarship,  but  to  be  as  great  at  some 
near  day  in  this  high  element  of  power  as  in  every 
other.  Alas  !  one  little  upper  chamber,  how  small ! 
would  hold  the  few  elect  spirits  that  have  seen  this  new 
fire  blazing  on  German  altars,  and  snatched  one  spark 
from  it  to  kindle  the  same  glowing  flame  in  their  own 
hearts.  Not  only  are  very  few  works  relating  to  general 
philology  produced  on  our  soil,  but  the  number  even 
of  those  imported  from  abroad  is  exceedingly  scanty. 
We  have  in  all  the  colleges  of  our  country,  only  one 
professor  of  Sanskrit ;  and  he,  though  a  philologist  of 
widely  acknowledged  eminence,  finds  but  few  pupils  to 
avail  themselves  of  his  instructions. 

In  the  outline  above  furnished  of  the  steps  by  which 
philology  has  reached  its  present  development,  a  suffi- 
cient view  has  been  furnished,  it  is  believed,  of  the 
literature  that  it  has  led  in  its  train,  to  give  the  reader 
a  true  acquaintance  with  the  men  and  the  modes  by 
which  it  has  been  advanced  to  its  present  position. 

Behold  now  the  most  important  of  the  different 
names  that  we  have  mentioned,  grouped  in  classes 
according  to  then'  merit. 

by  him  to  be,  entertaining  rather  than  scientific :  a  book  of  suggestions 
and  of  a  few  mere  outline-sketches,  adapted  to  the  popular  reader,  and 
not  one  of  deep  scholarly  investigations  of  his  own  or  of  scholarly 
guidance  unto  others.  He  coasts  only  around  about  a  few  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  Norman  and  Latin  elements  of  our  language,  and  speaks  of 
Latin  in  old  style  as  '•  a  compound  of  Grecian  and  un-Grecian  deriv- 
atives." 


258  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

1.  Bopp,  Grimm,  Pott,  Diefenbach,  Benary, 
Schleicher,  The  two  Curtius,  Kuhii,  Diez,  Mommseii, 
Aufrecht,  and  Weber. 

2.  EichhofF,  Ahi-ens,  Giese,  Hoefer,  Heyse,  Benfey, 
Donaldson. 

3.  Kaltschmidt,  Rapp  and  Winning. 

These  writers  may  also  be  advantageously  divided, 
for  the  reader's  information,  into  different  classes, 
according  to  the  subjects  that  they  have  investigated. 

I.  Language. 

1st.  The  Indo-European  languages  generally  : 
Schleicher  (Sprachen  Europa's) ;  Max  Miiller  (Survey 
of  Languages,  2d  edition) ;  Heyse's  System  der  Sprach- 
wissenschaft,  pp.  174-208  ;  Eichhoff's  Vergleichung 
der  Sprachen,  pp.  20-36. 

2d.  Specially, 

(1.)  The  Graeco-Italic  :  Schleicher  (Sprachen,  &c.) ; 
Mommsen  (Romische  Geschichte  );  E.  Curtius  (Griech- 
ische  Gesch.)  ;  Aufrecht  and  Kirchhoff  (Umbrische 
Sprachdenkmaler) ;  Diez  (Grammatik  der  Romanischen 
Sprachen). 

(2.)  The  Lettic  :  Schleicher  (Sprachen  &c.). 

(3.)  The  Gothic  :  Grimm  (Deutsche  Grammatik 
and  Geschichte) ;  Schleicher ;  Diefenbach  (Gothisches 
Worterbuch) . 

(4.)  Slavonic :  Schafarik  ;  Schleicher ;  Miklosich. 

(5.)  Celtic:  Diefenbach  (Celtica) ;  Pictet;  Charles 
Meyer ;  Zeuss  (Grammatica  Celtica) ;  Ebel  (Zeitschrift 
&c.)  ;  Prichard  (Celtic  Nations). 


HISTORY    OP    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  259 

II.  Phonetics. 

Benary ;  Hoefer ;  Grimm  (Deutsche  Grammatik 
and  Geschichte) ;  Bopp  (Vergleicli.  Gramm.)  ;  Diez 
(Grammatik,  &c.) ;  Corssen  (Lateinische  Vokalismus) ; 
Heyse's  System,  &c.  ;  Zeitsohrift  fiir  vergleicli.  Sprach- 
forschimg;  Arts,  by  Ebel,  Benary,  Kuhn&Forstemami. 

III.  The  Philosophy  of  Language. 

Becker's  various  works  on  Grammar,  &c. ;  Heyse's 
System  cler  Spracliwissenscliaft ;  Lerscli's  Spracliphilo- 
sopliie  ;  Humboldt's  different  essays  on  language ; 
Bunsen's  Philosophy  of  Universal  History,  vol.  i. 

IV.  Etymology. 

Pott's  Etymologische  Eorschungen,  new  edition. 

Bopp  (Vergleich.  Gramm.) ;  Schleicher  (Litauische 
Grammatik)  ;  G.  Curtius  (Griechische  Gramm.,  and 
especially  Griechische  Etymologic) ;  Diez  (Grammatik) ; 
Diez  (Lexicon  Etymologicum) ;  Eritsch. 

A  beginner  in  the  study  of  philology  who  desires, 
at  the  least  outlay  of  money  and  time,  to  put  himself 
as  soon  as  possible  into  the  possession  of  the  main  facts 
and  principles  of  the  science,  will  find  the  following  few 
works  admirably  answer  the  purpose  : 

Schleicher's  Sprachen  Europa's. 

Heyse's  System  der  Sprach^vissenschaft. 

Diez'  Grammatik  der  Romanischen  Sprachen. 

Max  MiiUer's  Survey  of  Languages. 

In  Germany  by  far  the  greatest  attention  has  been 
paid  from  spontaneous  impulse,  to  the  claims  of  com- 


260  HISTOllY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY, 

parative  philology;  while  in  Russia  the  Governmem 
has  as  far  exceeded  all  other  governments,  in  its  patron- 
age of  this  delightful  study,  and  of  those  who  are 
devoted  to  it.  This  is  one  of  the  chief  legacies  left  by 
the  Empress  Catherine,  in  her  own  zealous  example,  to 
her  successors  on  the  throne  ;  and  in  accepting  it  they 
have  not  forgotten  to  put  it  to  good  usury.  The  gov- 
ernment publishes,  at  its  own  expense,  the  grammars, 
dictionaries  and  treatises,  prepared  by  the  best  scholars ; 
and  sustains  travellers  at  its  own  expense,  in  making 
exploring  tours  for  philological  purposes  in  the  East. 
Vienna,  however,  is  the  most  prolifici  of  all  single  cities 
in  the  world,  in  oriental  publications.  In  Erance, 
Prussia  and  Denmark  also,  much  more  zeal  is  shown 
in  this  captivating  class  of  studies,  than  in  either  Eng- 
land or  America.  The  Sanskrit  has  been  indeed  as 
long  taught  in  England  as  in  Germany,  and  even 
longer  ;  but  not  for  classical  and  philological  purposes  : 
for  commercial  reasons  rather,  under  the  patronage  of 
the  East  India  Company,  at  the  College  of  Haileybury. 
But  justice  to  the  great  dead,  who  distinguished 
themselves  in  classical  pliilology,  immediately  before 
the  dawn  of  comparative  Indo-European  philology, 
demands  their  distinct  remembrance  here ;  and  all  the 
more,  as  some  of  their  foUoAvers  have  endeavored,  by 
voluntarily  shutting  their  eyes  to  such  light  as  their 
predecessors  never  saw  but  would  have  hailed  with 
eagerness,  to  limit  themselves  and  others  to  the  mere 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  261 

paths  which  they  trod,  although  with  a  far  different 
spirit,  and  while  moving  in  the  van  of  their  age  instead 
of  behind  it. 

Heyne  was  the  first  to  awaken  high  interest  in 
classical  philology,  as  a  special  distinct  study,  in  Ger- 
many, and  was  followed  in  his  noble  efforts  by  such 
men  as  Buttmann,  Hermann  and  Passow  :  all  men  of 
splendid  genius  and  scholarship,  according  to  the 
highest  ideals  of  their  age.  .  It  is  pleasant  to  pause  at 
any  time,  and  gaze  at  the  dimensions  of  their  scholar- 
ship, which  rise  before  us  like  huge  colossal  structures, 
for  their  times,  high  and  clear  against  the  sky. 

No  one  of  them  had  finer  tastes  and  larger  powers 
than  Dr.  Philip  Buttmann :  a  native  philologist  and  a 
noble  Greek  scholar,  unsurpassed  alike  in  philosophical 
insight  and  scholarly  enthusiasm  by  any  student  in  any 
land.  His  Greek  Grammar  and  his  Lexilogus  are  his 
principal  works,  and  exhibit  the  best  possible  qualities 
of  linguistic  investigation. 

The  advocates  of  mere  classical  philology  now,  are 
like  an  army  that  was  once  victorious,  but  has  lost  all 
its  great  leaders.  Doderlein,  one  of  the  best  repre- 
sentatives in  Germany  of  the  remnants  of  this  school, 
still  lives  to  look  around  him,  Avith  the  loneliness  of  a 
man  deserted  by  a  generation  that  had  no  pride  of  its 
own  to  gratify  in  walking  with  him,  and  could  not 
afford  to  gratify  his  pride  in  standing  still  and  gazing 
with  admiration  upon  him,  while  he  walked  majestically 

18 


262  HISTORY  or  modern  philology. 

by  himself.  He  has  persistently  refused  to  improve 
the  light  of  the  new  philology,  and  has  thereby  exiled 
himself  as  a  scholar  from  the  generation  with  which  he 
yet  lives  as  a  man.  He  has  indeed  fm-nished  in  his 
various  works,  in  the  mere  isolated  connections  of  Greek 
with  Latin,  a  good  deal  of  valuable  material,  which  may 
be  worked  with  care  by  other  hands  into  a  useful 
shape,  by  being  re-adjusted  and  harmonized  with  the 
elements  of  a  true  and  comprehensive  etymology.  His 
first  great  fault  is  the  very  fundamental  conception  of 
his  whole  plan,  that  of  deriving  the  Latin  immediately 
from  the  Greek,  and  his  next  great  fault  is  his  practical 
adoption  of  the  Aristotelian  system  of  squaring  facts, 
with  all  possible  ingenuity,  to  preconceived  theories, 
instead  of  the  Baconian  system  of  first  finding  the  facts 
and  conforming  his  theory  to  them ;  so  that  he  con- 
stantly bends  whatever  is  opposed  to  his  views  in  the 
Greek,  by  force,  into  his  service.  But  sm'ely  and 
steadily  the  false  light  of  a  separate  classical  philology 
is  fast  waning  away,  under  the  brighter  light  of  com- 
parative philology.  Classical  philology,  in  its  true 
form,  and  of  its  true  dimensions,  when  built  on  the 
foundations  of  comparative  philology,  is  a  science  of 
vast  and  beautiful  proportions,  in  which  as  in  a  mansion 
of  light  the  highest  minds  can  taiTy  with  joy  and 
wonder  ;  but,  built  on  any  separate,  exclusive  basis  of 
its  own,  its  dimensions  are  all  contracted,  and  its  uses 
are  meagre  and  pitiful. 


HISTORY    or    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  263 

In  its  philosophical  aspects,  comparative  philology 
bears  a  most  commanding  mien.  Its  generalizations, 
Uke  those  of  the  great  philosophies,  are  unbounded  in 
their  scope,  covering  the  whole  field  of  human  language. 
It  has,  like  Christianity,  out  of  whose  hand  it  has  flown 
forth  among  the  nations,  and  like  the  great  elements  of 
nature  and  of  life,  the  mark  of  its  divine  origin,  in  its 
adaptation  to  all  times  and  ages,  all  languages  and 
words. 

Comparative  philology  divides  languages  into  two 
great  classes,  the  old  or  primary,  and  the  new  or 
secondary.  The  primary  are  all  arranged  in  a  few 
family-groups,  as  the  Indian,  Graeco-Latin,  Lettic,  Sla- 
vonic, Gothic  and  Celtic ;  while  the  secondary  are  the 
more  recent  languages  derived  from  them,  and  usu- 
ally with  many  admixtures.  Constant  commingling, 
and  thereby  constant  renovation,  is  the  law  of  Provi- 
dence, in  respect  to  tribes  and  races  on  the  one  hand, 
and  correspondingly,  by  necessary  result  on  the  other, 
the  law  of  language  also ;  which  is  but  a  vast  pano- 
rama, in  word-scenery,  of  the  winding  stream  of  a 
nation's  history.  The  established  limitations  to  the 
working  of  any  contrary  law  are  remarkable.  Com- 
merce seems  to  be  an  absolute  necessity  to  the  world's 
progress,  not  only  in  business,  but  also  in  ideas  and 
language,  and  even  in  blood.  The  secondary  languages 
are  classified  according  to  their  grammatical,  instead  of 
their  lexical,  resemblances.     Thus,  the  English,  though 


264  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

SO  largely  Romanic  in  its  constituent  verbal  elements, 
is  yet,  in  its  grammatical  character,  German.  So,  the 
New  Persian,  although  full  of  Arabic  words,  is  yet 
justly  called  Iranian  and  not  Semitic,  because  of  its 
inward  Iranian  structure. 

The  amount  of  investigation  made  in  comparative 
philology  is,  when  contrasted  with  none  at  all,  very 
large  ;  but,  when  contrasted  with  the  whole  area  of  aU 
languages,  it  is  yet  small.  The  languages  of  the  civil- 
ized world  are  those  that  have  been  most  explored,  and 
those  only  in  their  main  outlines,  rather  than  in  all 
their  vast  fulness  of  details.  Each  year  is  adding  new 
discoveries  to  this  recent,  though  great  science ;  and, 
though  but  partially  developed,  it  is  yet  of  gigantic 
proportions.  The  mighty  intellects  at  work  upon  it, 
have  made  its  foundations  very  large  ;  and  yet  at  the 
same  time,  they  have  carried  up  its  walls  already  to  an 
unexpected  height  of  grandeur. 

The  principal  results  obtained  by  comparative  phi- 
lology are  the  following  : 

1st.  To  invest  the  study  of  language  with  new 
charms. 

Language  is  now  seen  to  be  a  vast  store-house,  full 
of  treasures ;  and  many  new  and  wide  avenues  to  re- 
search are  open  within  it.  The  study  of  language  is 
not  only  made  a  higher  study  than  ever  before,  but  also 
entirely  different :  a  study  worthy  of  the  greatest  efforts 
of  the  greatest  minds  :  the  study  of  its  inward  structure 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  265 

as  an  organic  whole,  and  also  of  the  origin,  history, 
growth  and  elementary  constitution  of  its  separate 
words.  The  grammar  and  dictionary  have  now  a  new 
and  high  use  :  such  an  use  as  to  an  artistic  eye,  de- 
lighting in  the  logic  of  inward  mutual  adaptations,  a 
steam  engine  has,  as  a  piece  of  wondrous  mechanism, 
compared  with  its  uses  to  the  unthinking  traveller,  for 
the  mere  object  of  locomotion.  To  the  ignorant  reader 
a  dictionary  seems  but  a  vast  mass  of  word-lumber ; 
but  to  a  mind  that  knows  the  inward  essences  of  things, 
it  is  an  immense  museum  of  the  most  interesting  antiq- 
uities and  curiosities.  Here  are  historical  memorials 
without  number,  and  the  coins  of  thought  and  love, 
that  have  passed  current  in  myriad  hands  from  one 
generation  to  another. 

And  how  is  the  silent  past  of  language  made,  under 
the  reviving  touch  of  philology,  all  vocal  of  itself  again. 
As  from  a  vast  seed-plot,  once  covered  by  many  gener- 
ations of  plants  and  trees,  but  now  long  barren,  from 
want  of  the  necessary  outward  conditions  of  growth  : 
there  has  been  from  every  language,  on  which  the  light 
and  heat  of  comparative  philology  have  been  poured,  a 
wondrous,  universal  outburst  of  its  ancient,  inward, 
long-concealed  vitality.  The  monuments  left  by  any 
nation,  are  indeed  very  scanty  relics  of  the  whole  round 
orb  of  its  active  life ;  but  no  monuments  have  been  left 
in  any  part  of  the  world,  so  determinate  of  their  char- 
acter, so  full  of  their  spirit,  and  so  enduring  in  contin- 


266  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

uance,  as  hose  of  language.  Language  is  in  itself  an 
impressible,  elastic,  ever  yielding  medium  of  social 
intercourse;  but  under  the  action  of  time  its  elements 
rapidly  harden  into  fixed  forms  :  retaining  the  impress 
of  every  thing  stamped  upon  them,  as,  in  the  clear  light 
of  geology,  we  still  find  treasured  in  the  rock  forever 
the  footprints  of  birds  that  walked  centuries  ago,  on  the 
yielding  sands  of  the  ancient  world,  and  even  the  patter 
of  rain-drops  that  poured  their  benediction  upon  the 
earth  before  man  was  here  to  receive  it.  In  language, 
as  in  pure  amber,  the  ideas,  hopes,  mistakes,  experi- 
ences, follies,  joys  and  sorrows  of  preceding  generations 
are  preserved,  in  clear,  transparent  beauty,  for  our 
constant  appreciation  and  enlightenment.  The  study 
of  language  rises,  under  the  light  of  true  philology,  like 
all  high  philosophy,  into  the  very  charms  of  poetry. 

2d.  To  resolve  many  supposed  grammatical  ir- 
regularities, in  different  languages,  into  really  regular 
forms. 

Thus,  for  example,  we  learn  that  in  Latin,  the  per- 
fect tense  has  normally  four  different  modes  of  forma- 
tion, as  1st.  By  reduplication,  which  we  find  (1)  in  the 
first  conjugation,  as  in  steti  and  dedi,  from  sto  and  do ; 
(2)  in  the  second,  as  in  momordi  and  spopondi,  from 
mordeo  and  spondeo ;  (3)  in  the  third,  as  in  cecidi  and 
tetendi,  from  cado  and  tendo ;  and  each  of  these  verbs 
is  entirely  regular  in  the  formation  of  its  perfect,  as 
much  as  Ivco  or  yQcccfco  in  their  perfects  laXvxa  and 


HISTORY    or    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  267 

y'syQacfcc.  2d.  By  the  addition  of  s,  as  in  the  Greek 
aoi'ist,  active  and  middle :  the  Latin  perfect  being  in  its 
use  an  aorist  as  well  as  a  perfect.  The  perfect  in  s  we 
find  (1)  in  the  second  conjugation,  as  in  arsi,  auxi, 
haesi  and  risi,  from  ardeo,  augeo,  haereo  and  rideo ; 
(2)  in  the  third,  as  in  scripsi  and  rexi,  from  scribo  and 
rego;  (3)  in  the  fourth,  as  in  hausi,  sanxi,  sensi,  vinxi, 
from  haurio,  sancio,  sentio,  vincio ;  and  these  are  all 
equally  regular,  although  in  our  manuals  of  grammar 
all  called  irregular.  3d.  By  the  aid  of  the  auxiliary 
verb  fui,  sometimes  hardened  into  vi,  and  sometimes 
softened  into  ui.  Thus,  (1)  amavi  is  for  amafui :  the 
stem  of  amare  being  ama  and  not  am,  as  erroneously 
stated  in  all  school-manuals  ;  (2)  so  monui  is  for  mone- 
fui,  (3)  In  the  third  conjugation  we  find  this  same 
auxiliary  perfect,  as  in  cupivi,  lacessivi,  petivi,  quaesivi, 
trjvi,  from  cupio,  lacesso,  peto,  quaero,  (for  quaeso,) 
and  tero.  (4)  In  the  fourth  conjugation  this  is  the 
prevailing  form  of  the  perfect,  so  that  the  mode  of 
forming  the  perfect  by  the  aid  of  auxiliaries,  is  not,  as 
sometimes  stated,  a  mere  modern  system  of  conjuga- 
tion. In  each,  also,  of  the  several  conjugations,  this 
style  of  perfect  is  as  regular  as  in  every  other  j  and  the 
perfect  of  petivi,  from  petere,  is  as  normal  as  amavi 
from  amare.  4th.  By  contracted  forms  of  the  pre- 
ceding styles  of  the  perfect :  as  (I)  of  reduplicated  per- 
fects in  egi  for  e-agi,  feci  for  fe-fici,  veni  for  ve-veni, 
fugi  for  fufugi,  legi  for  lelegi :  (2)  of  perfects  in  s,  as  fidi 


268  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

(pert',  of  fmdo)  for  iidsi,  and  scidi  (perf.  of  sciiido)  for 
scidsi.  Here,  indeed,  we  have  irregularities,  but  of  a 
very  simple,  intelligible  kind.  And  so  in  Greek  the 
analysis  of  forms  in  ao  is  beautiful,  as  an  euphonic  sym- 
bol for  yi,  y.L,  /i,  TL  in  various  forms :  as  ruoaco  for 
TuyiG),  /^ccQiiOOa  ioiv  /jiQitvnu  and  rjaocov  for  rjxiMv. 

In  a  similar  way  supposed  exceptions  and  irregu- 
larities in  prosody  are  at  once  eclaircized  by  compara- 
tive etymology,  as  regular  in  fact  although  not  in  ap- 
pearance. 

3d.  To  show  us  that,  of  all  the  perishable  things 
of  this  world,  language  is  the  least  perishable.  Here 
is  a  monument  of  national  life,  that  not  only  outlives  the 
nation  itself,  but  also  all  its  structures  of  art  or  enter- 
prise. A  language  may  be  put  to  new  uses  and  be 
borne  to  new  climes;  it  may  encounter,  again  and 
again,  the  shock  of  opposing  arms,  amid  the  terrors  of 
invasion  or  of  conquest ;  it  may  be  beaten  and  bruised 
by  the  changes  of  time ;  and  yet,  while  its  surface  is 
thus  broken  and  worn,  like  that  of  a  rock  which  fell 
ages  ago  from  the  bosom  of  some  cliff  into  the  arms  of 
old  Ocean,  and  Avhich  he  has  been  ever  since  tossing 
about  as  a  plaything,  its  substance  itself  remains  un- 
changed. Its  texture  and  color  and  hardness  gtill  indi- 
cate its  first  parentage  and  place. 

4th.  To  show  us,  that  the  great  law  of  analogy, 
pervading  the  whole  outward  creation,  prevails  also 
throughout  the  department  of  language :  the  law  of 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  269 

perpetual  unity  in  perpetual  variety.  All  true  ideas  of 
perfection  of  form  and  of  detail  terminate  in  the  con- 
ception of  a  grand  unity.  God  himself  may  be  defined 
as  Infinite  Fulness  of  all  things  great  and  good  re- 
alized and  impersonated  in  one,  grand,  glorious  Being. 

5th.  To  show  us  that  each  language,  while  specially 
endowed  for  its  own  wants  and  uses,  has  yet  the  divine 
stamp  upon  it  of  general  utility,  and  of  a  large  adapta- 
tion to  relations  and  harmonies  and  benefits  beyond 
itself. 

Comparative  philology  combines  all  the  languages, 
which  it  resolves,  into  a  grand  mutually-sustained  har- 
mony of  dependence  and  service  one  to  the  other.  It 
represents  them,  not,  as  each  a  separate  musician  play- 
ing among  others  a  diff"erent  melody  in  horrible  dis- 
cord ;  but  rather,  as  standing  up  together  like  a  band 
of  brothers  in  full  orchestra,  with  their  difi'erent  instru- 
ments, to  join  their  notes  together  in  one  loud-swellhig 
universal  chorus. 

6th.  To  pour  new  light  on  the  history  of  nations. 
The  migrations  of  nations  into  different  zones  and  into 
scenes  of  a  different  aspect  and  influence,  from  time  to 
time,  have  their  history  fully  written,  in  their  stature, 
figure,  features  and  whole  physical  conformation :  as 
every  tree  contains,  in  the  shape  of  its  boughs  and 
stems  and  in  the  amount  of  its  flowers  and  fruits,  a 
record  of  every  breath  of  wind,  and  of  every  drop  of 
rain,  and  of  every  beam  of  light  that  ever  have  visited 


270  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

it.  Our  dull,  coarse  eyesight,  wliicli  receives  only  the 
outermost  disclosure  that  things  around  us  make  of 
themselves,  is  not  able  to  traverse  this  multiform  record 
of  the  past,  in  any  thing ;  but  yet  every  thing  contains 
it.  Each  present  object  vv^ithin  our  view,  is  the  pro- 
duct of  millions  on  millions  of  minute  agencies,  ever 
active  in  the  past,  interlacing  each  other  with  their  in- 
fluence, changing  constantly  from  one  form  into  another, 
and  terminating  in  their  present  use  and  value,  in  the 
transient  demonstration  of  themselves  that  they  make 
at  each  moment  to  their  casual  beholder. 

In  the  languages  of  the  world,  however,  all  its 
changes,  even  those  too  slight  for  the  pen  of  history  to 
sketch  or  its  eye  to  see,  are  stamped,  according  to  their 
precise  value,  beyond  the  danger  of  erasure.  Time  it- 
self rolls  the  wheel  of  centuries,  no  matter  hoAV  heavily, 
over  the  faithful  record,  but  in  vain.  The  history  of 
each  civilized  nation  has  been  often  written  and  will  be 
often  written  again ;  and  so  rapid  is  the  progress  of 
modern  society,  that  each  generation  demands  a  new 
history  for  itself  of  all  the  leading  nations  of  the  world. 
So  great  have  been  the  improvements  made  from  time 
to  time,  that  the  model  histories  of  preceding  genera- 
tions have  come  to  be  quite  antiquated  and  to  be  valued 
now,  rather  for  the  special  style  of  the  philosophic  or 
religious  views  expressed  in  them,  or  the  high  rhetorical 
beauty  of  their  composition,  than  for  their  adequate 
representation  of  the  people  themselves  whom  they  de- 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY,  271 

scribe.  Historic  writing  indeed  has  evinced  as  nmcli 
growth,  diuing  the  preceding  century  and  the  present 
ahke,  not  only  in  pubhc  interest  but  also  in  its  own 
triumphs  of  research  and  discovery,  as  any  other  de- 
partment of  human  genius. 

Ethnography  cannot  be  written  truly,  except  in  the 
light  of  thorough  philological  inquiry.  Much  of  our 
supposed  knowledge  of  the  earlier  nations  of  the  world 
and  of  the  changes  that  passed  over  them,  has  been  le- 
gendary :  derived  it  is  true  from  ancient  sources,  but 
of  no  better  value  for  that  reason  than  title-deeds 
wdiich,  although  they  have  come  down  through  a  suc- 
cession of  men  acting  honestly  in  their  transmission, 
were  yet  themselves  at  the  outset  invalid  and  worthless. 
A  chain  that  has  one  imperfect  link  in  it,  is  no  stronger 
throughout  than  in  the  spot  of  its  greatest  weakness. 

And,  as  the  history  of  Nineveh  has  recently  been 
disentombed  out  of  the  mounds  of  earth  that  had  before 
concealed  it  from  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and  the  history 
of  Egypt  has  been  first  opened  in  our  day,  with  any  ful- 
ness, from  the  records  hidden  within  its  own  monu- 
ments ;  so,  in  the  hitherto  unexplored  crypts  and 
recesses  of  different  languages,  lie  entombed  the  memo- 
rials of  the  w^orld's  slow  marches  and  solemn  changes; 
and,  as  the  philologist  has  the  high  office  of  interpret- 
ing the  voice  of  God,  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  to  the 
world,  so,  is  it  his  grand  function  to  interpret  man  to 
himself,  and  to  unroll  at  his  feet  the  scroll  of  the  past 


272  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

as  it  has  actually  been  rolled  up  together  in  the  gradual 
development  of  human  life  and  action. 

Philology  supplies  also  to  some  extent  the  want  of 
ante-historic  records,  and  that  too  often  with  quite  pic- 
torial effect.  Who  would  not  delight  to  look  within 
that  shadowy  dawn  of  humanity,  on  which  no  light 
from  the  hand  of  man  has  ever  fallen,  and  to  know  well 
our  race,  in  all  the  noAV  unknown  steps  of  its  progress. 
But  the  first  life  both  outw^ardly  and  inw^ardly  of  our 
original  Arian  ancestors,  is  painted  to  us  clearly  in 
word-colors*  still  fresh  and  strong  of  every  varied  hue. 

*  There  is  in  Weber's  Indische  Skizzen  a  brief  but  lively  picture, 
of  the  earliest  unwritten  history  of  the  Indo-European  family  :  drawn 
out  of  their  words  themselves,  like  the  pictures  made  by  geologists 
from  the  fossil  records  of  the  earth,  of  the  flora  and  fauna  of  the  world 
before  man  entered  upon  it.  "  Let  us  try  he  says  ^pp.  9 — 10),  to  present 
in  a  few  touches  a  sketch  of  that  primitive  period.  The  common 
prevalence  of  most  of  the  words  for  relationship,  shows  that  f;imily-life 
among  our  first  ancestors,  had  a  very  definite  position.  The  same  ex- 
pressions reappear,  not  only  in  reference  to  parents  and  children  and 
brothers  and  sisters,  but  also  to  relatives  in  law  as  well  as  those  by 
blood,  in  almost  all  the  Indo-European  tongues.  The  etymology  of 
roots  still  living  in  the  Sanskrit,  teaches  us  that  father,  means  a  pro- 
tector ;  mother,  one  who  sets  in  order ;  brother  a  helper ;  sister  the 
careful  one  ;  and  daughter  one  who  milks  :  in  which  we  sec  the  most 
simple  patriarchal  relations  indicated.  The  prevailing  use  of  domestic 
animals  is  shown,  by  the  common  names  of  the  cow  (the  slow-march- 
ing) of  the  ox  (the  producing  one)  of  the  bvill,  the  goat  the  sheep  the 
sow  (the  prolific)  the  horse,  &c.  The  dog  (the  swift)  defended  the 
herds  :  the  wolf  (tearing  to  pieces)  and  the  bear  (shining,  from  his  fur) 
w(!re  their  terror.  Tiie  mouse  (the  thief)  stole  their  provisions ;  the 
horse-fly  buzzed  about,  the  gnat  stung,  the  snake  crept.  Goose,  duck, 
dove,  woodpecker,  cuckoo,  finch,  chattered  and  sang,  and  the  cock 
crowed.    The  light  hare  sprang  before  them,  and  the  boar  rooted  in  the 


HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY.  273 

Their  deepest  thonglits  and  experiences  lie  spread  out 
before  us,  in  the  inner  sense  of  their  speech,  as  in  a 
full  bright  landscape.  It  is  surely  pleasant,  to  be  able 
to  look  back  in  any  way,  and  see  them  distinctly  in  the 
distant,  dark,  historic  solitude  of  their  first  experiences 
of  life,  and  find  that  they  had  the  same  human  hearts 

dirt.  The  house  was  firm,  provided  with  doors.  Wagons  and  boats 
served  for  their  passage  over  fields  and  floods.  The  fields  were  tilled 
with  the  plough :  barley  and  wheat  furnished  them  meal  and  bread. 
Clothes,  utensils  and  arms  they  had  in  abundance.  Sword,  spear,  knife 
and  arrow  were  all  of  brass.  Intoxicating  mead  led  the  way  to  merry 
song,  while  large  shells  and  reeds  served  for  music.  Conflict  was  a 
pleasure,  and  the  sense  of  race  was  so  strong  that  the  word  barbarian 
(stammering)  was  used  indeed  in  that  primeval  time,  to  indicate  other 
people  of  foreign  speech.  A  subdued  enemy  was  a  slave.  At  the  head 
of  the  many  stood  a  ruler,  defender  or  master,  the  leader  in  battle  and 
the  judge  in  peace.  The  country  was  mountainous  and  abounded 
in  water.  The  forest  furnished  refreshing  coolness:  the  oak  was 
its  principal  ornament.  The  winter  seems  to  have  been  severe; 
besides  its  name  returns  now  still,  that  of  the  spring  (clothing  again). 
The  sun  was  worshipped  as  the  principle  of  life  and  praises  were  sung 
to  the  shining  dawn  of  day  :  the  moon  served  as  the  measure  of  time. 
The  stars  were  regarded  as  ray -archers.  The  great  bear  whose  Greek 
name  apKTos  pi-operly  signifies  only  "  the  shining  one "  shone  forth 
conspicuously  among  them.  Thunder,  lightning,  storm,  rain,  cloud  and 
wind  sent  terror  and  fear  into  the  timid  heart.  The  all-embracing 
Heaven  whose  Greek  name  ovpavos  reappears  in  the  Vedic  Varuna,  was 
regarded  as  the  father  of  all  and  the  earth  as  the  universal  mother. 
The  dark  cloud-god,  who  plundered  in  his  ravines  the  golden  flock  of 
the  stars  and  sunbeams  and  the  fertilizing  rains  of  Heaven,  was  pros- 
trated by  the  arrows  of  the  god  of  lightning :  his  bands  were  torn  in 
pieces  and  the  plundered  herd  were  set  free.  The  mighty  incompre- 
hensible powers  of  Natui-e  awakened  in  man,  the  sense  of  his  weakness ; 
and  he  bowed  liis  head  in  recognition  of  the  same,  offered  to  them  his 
sacrifices  and  his  songs,  and  represented  them  to  himself  in  gracious  or 
in  dire  terrific  forms,  as  he  clothed  them  in  his  fancy  with  the  physical 


274  HISTORY    OF    MODERN    PHILOLOGY. 

that  we  have,  with  the  same  joys  and  fears  and  sorrows 
as  our  own.  Thanks  to  Philology,  for  the  clear  tele- 
scopic view  which  it  furnishes  us,  of  the  otherwise  un- 
sketched  and  invisible  space,  that  stretches  huge  and 
dark  beyond  the  misty  outline  of  the  first  historic  eras 
of  our  race. 

aspects,  that  environed  him.  To  this  dawn  of  Time  belong  the  repre- 
sentations also  of  a  Manu,  the  first  man  and  father,  and  of  a  great  flood 
which  devastated  and  devoured  every  thing,  and  from  which  he  alone 
was  saved.  Both  of  these  traditions  we  find  also  among  the  Semitic 
family;  and  they  are  to  be  regarded,  among  other  lingual  facts,  as 
proof  that  the  Semitic  and  Indo-European  families  were  at  a  still 
earlier  period  united  in  one,  from  which  state  they  afterwards  sepa- 
rated, before  however  the  two  common  languages  had  arrived  at  any 
grammatical  precision  of  form." 


III. 

THE    SCIENCE    OF   ETYMOLOGY. 


III. 

THE  SCIENCE  OF  ETYMOLOGY. 

The  very  caption  of  this  Article  will  astonish  some  and 
amuse  others,  who  have  been  in  the  habit  of  regarding 
etymology  as  a  mere  mass  of  vagaries.  That  it  has 
any  such  scope  as  to  deserve  the  dignified  name  of  a 
science,  or  any  such  interior  frame-work  of  principles 
as  to  possess  its  essential  nature,  is  quite  beyond  the 
general  estimate  of  its  character.  In  this  country, 
indeed,  and  in  England  as  also  in  Prance  and  every- 
where but  in  Germany,  both  vernacular  and  classical 
etymology  are  in  the  same  rude,  unmethodized  state  of 
first  and  partial  discovery,  in  which  chemistry  and 
geology  existed  half  a  centuiy  ago.  What  facts  are 
seen  and  appreciated  appear  to  most  even  of  their 
admirers,  but  as  isolated  novelties  and  wonders,  and 
have  none  of  the  charm  or  power  of  a  splendid  combi- 
nation, of  comprehensive  and  complicated  afiinities  and 
relations. 

Our  modern  languages  are  all  derived  from  those 
of  elder  ages  ;  and  these  are  found  when   subjected  to 

19 


278  THE   SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

thorough  analysis,  to  have  been  derived,  in  their  turn, 
from  those  anterior  to  them  ;  while  on  a  wide  and 
critical  survey,  all  the  tongues  of  the  civilized  world 
appear  full  of  multitudinous  correspondences  and  con- 
nections. 

The  object  of  this  Essay  will  be  realized,  if  the 
following  topics  connected  with  the  science  of  etymol- 
ogy, are  presented  in  sufficient  outline  : 

I.  The  general  proportions  and  relations  of  the  subject. 
II.  The  history  of  classical  and  vernacular  etymology. 

III.  The  constituent  elements  of  etymology  as  a  science. 

IV.  Its  determinative  princiiDles  and  tests. 

V.  Some  of  the  advantages  of  the  study  of  this  science. 

I.  The  general  proportions  and  relations  of  the 
subject. 

It  has  been  often  said,  and  truly,  that  the  study  of 
the  Latin  has  a  value  in  it  in  its  mere  relations  to  our 
language,  sufficient  to  authorize  for  this  reason  without 
reference  to  many  others  also,  the  most  zealous  attention 
to  its  claims.  But  how  can  any  deep  scholarly  insight 
into  its  relations  to  the  English  be  gained,  except  in 
the  light  of  a  broad  and  complete  classical  etymology, 
which  shall  present  the  Latin  truly  in  all  its  manifold 
connections,  not  only  with  succeeding  languages,  but 
also  with  those  which  were  antecedent  and  contempo- 
rary ?  This  ancient  language  must  be  seen  in  order  to 
be  rightly  seen,  wliile  clothed  in  its  own  armor  and 
bearing  its  own  banners,  not  only  leading  other  Ian- 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  279 

guages  majestically  in  its  train  but  also  moving  in 
solemn  and  sublime  raarcli  along  the  highway  of  ages, 
with  the  great  peoples  and  languages  that  anticipated 
and  accompanied  its  glory  and  its  doom.  On  account 
of  the  artistic  treasures  of  the  Greek  language,  and  the 
fine,  sesthetical  influence  of  its  higher  literature  upon 
those  elect  spirits  who  walk  familiarly  amid  its  Alpine 
wonders  :  an  influence  of  which  most  American  students 
of  Greek,  who  are  but  dabblers  in  this  tongue  of  the 
giants,  have  only  heard  by  tradition,  having  never  had 
a  sensation  of  it  themselves  :  it  has  come  to  be  quite 
fashionable  in  the  scholastic  world,  to  speak  of  that 
noble  language  in  terms  quite  disparaging,  at  the  same 
time,  to  the  Latin.  And  our  classical  students  gener- 
ally have  fallen,  under  the  influence  of  this  sort  of  per- 
petuated pedantry,  into  an  almost  universal  habit  of 
placing  the  Latin  in  contemptuous  contrast  with  the 
Greek.  Pew  see  even  that  it  has  any  large  connection 
with  the  Greek  ;  and  few  of  those  who  have  grasped 
that  great  fact  comprehend,  from  the  want  of  a  wide 
philological  view  of  the  three  classical  languages  in  their 
mutual  relations,  the  Sanskrit,  Greek  and  Latin,  what 
that  connection  is.  But  while  its  correspondences  with 
the  Greek  cover  a  vast  array  of  details,  and  many  of 
them  when  disclosed  become  immediately  apparent  to 
the  eye,  many  more  become  delightfully  clear  to  one, 
who,  by  applying  the  chemic  tests  of  phonology,  knows 
how  to  reduce  at  once  both  simple  and  comparative 


280  THE    SCIENCE   OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

forms  to  their  original  analytical  elements.  The  Latin 
and  the  Greek  are  cognate  languages,  being  of  one 
common  Pelasgic  or  Grseco-Latin  origin,  and  as  such 
greatly  illustrative  of  each  other ;  while,  placed  together 
like  associated  mirrors,  they  reflect  with  strange  exact- 
ness and  fulness  of  effect  the  earlier  Sanskrit,  which  is 
itself  also  a  derived  language,  exhibiting  not  at  all  the 
ultimate  origin  of  our  present  languages,  but  rather  the 
farthest  link  backwards  yet  discovered  in  the  chain  of 
ascending  relations  and  affinities.  That  chain  of  suc- 
cessive origination  and  derivation  of  all  known  languages 
runs  backward  from  the  centuries  and  countries  of 
modem  times,  through  one  language  and  people  after 
another  more  and  more  perfect  in  its  texture  as  it  rises, 
until  it  ends  ultimately  in  that  lost  mother-tongue 
which  Adam  spoke  in  Eden  ;  and  which,  as  a  matter 
of  moral  evidence,  it  is  absolutely  certain  that  he 
learned  directly  from  God  himself,  since  each  man  and 
generation  succeeding  him  has  learned  to  speak  only 
from  those  who  have  preceded  them.  As  in  the 
material  world  man  creates  nothing,  and  only  moulds 
and  transforms  substances  and  shapes  abeady  at  hand, 
so,  in  the  world  of  language  he  only  re-casts  and  trans- 
mutes the  materials  furnished  liim  by  an  earlier  age. 
The  same  race  bearing  off  the  same  original  elements 
of  speech  in  divided  companies  into  different  climates, 
amid  diversified  scenes  and  skies  and  modes  of  life, 
will  as  certainly  change  and  conform  them,  though  in- 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  281 

sensibly,  to  the  new  atmospheres  of  their  new  hfe  each 
for  itself ;  as  that  same  race,  departing  into  different 
zones,  will  erelong  take  on  in  each  a  different  com- 
plexion, stature,  and  physiognomy,  choose  different 
food,  employments,  and  dress,  and  adopt  also  different 
dwellings,  institutions,  and  customs.* 

Nothing  is  found  in  the  realms  of  speech  any  more 
than  in  those  of  nature,  "  without  father  or  mother." 
Here,  as  everywhere  else,  the  maxim  is  true,  "  ex 
nihilo  nihil  fit."  The  languages,  therefore,  of  the 
world,  like  the  men  who  have  spoken  them,  have  all 
been  bound  together  by  a  regular  series  of  sequences, 
running  link  by  link  in  luminous  beauty  from  any  and 
every  language  now  spoken  upon  earth,  to  the  first 
language  in  which  listening  angels  heard  Adam  and 
Eve  discourse  to  each  other ;  and  from  that  back  to 
God  himself,  the  great  All-in-all,  from  whose  own  gii'dle 
the  golden  chain  of  human  speech  divine  was  dropped 
lovingly  down  to  man,  in  order  to  bind  him  to  hnnself 
and  all  nations  in  heavenly  sympathy  with  each  other. 

As  for  the  Latin,  whose  connection  with  the  Greek 
and  Sanskrit  has  thus  suggested  and  required  the 
farther  and  wider  statement  of  the  connection  of  all 
languages   with   each   other,  it   has   excellences    and 

*  In  Prichard's  Natural  History  of  Man,  the  curious  reader  will  be 
interested  to  trace  the  different  aspects  and  characteristics  of  the  Jews, 
in  different  parts  of  the  world,  and  even  of  Hinddstan  alone,  although 
everywhere  living,  in  vaunted  seclusion  of  blood  from  other  people,  as 
to  their  figure,  countenance,  color  and  whole  physique. 


283  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

advantages  of  its  own ;  which,  while  they  set  the  seal 
of  its  peculiar  individuality  upon  it,  demonstrate  its 
capability  to  supply  the  varied  wants  of  human  speech 
to  be  broad  and  deep.  It  will  be  the  quick,  decided 
testimony  of  any  one  who  has  studied  it  for  many 
years,  having  surveyed  its  dimensions  on  every  side, 
having  sounded  all  its  depths  and  scaled  its  various 
heights,  and  scanned  alike  its  inward  treasures  and  its 
outward  relations,  that  in  respect  to  the  history  of  its 
influence  as  much  as  to  that  of  its  origin,  and  in  respect 
to  its  own  iron-like  stability  and  the  stability,  force  and 
dignity  which  it  has  imparted  to  the  different  languages 
into  whose  bosom  it  has  poured  the  current  of  its  own 
living  strength,  it  is  full  of  wonders.  Not  only  is  no 
one  study  in  the  whole  current  of  educational  appli- 
ances equal  to  it,  for  all  the  purposes  of  mental  and 
scholastic  drill ;  but  also,  as  a  matter  of  actual  fact,  the 
great  mass  of  all  the  linguistic  culture,  and  of  all  the 
many  rich  results  of  the  higher  classical  education  of 
the  whole  civilized  world,  has  been  obtained  from  this 
source,  in  all  ages.  The  Latin  is  thus  distinctly  dwelt 
upon  at  the  outset  and  at  length,  because  its  position 
in  the  science  of  etymology  is  very  high  and  altogether 
peculiar.  And  it  is  one  of  the  first  duties  as  well  as 
one  of  the  first  instincts  of  an  amateur  of  classical  or 
vernacular  etymology,  to  vindicate  the  Latin  from  the 
false  ideas  and  estimates  that  prevail  without  thought 
concerning  it  in  the  community.     The  Latin  is  central 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  283 

in  its  position  and  bearings,  between  the  first  known 
languages  and  those  now  existing.  In  it  they  find 
their  mutual  bond  of  connection.  No  language  upon 
earth  has  in  it  so  much  of  what  is  old,  at  the  same 
time  with  so  much  of  what  is  new.  But  for  the  Latin 
and  the  Greek,  the  Sanskrit,  that  wonderful  fossil  lan- 
guage in  whose  extinct  remains  we  find  the  types  of  all 
the  subsequent  Indo-European  languages,  would  be 
well  nigh  devoid  of  interest  to  us  ;  and  but  for  the 
Latin,  the  modern  languages  would,  all  at  least  but  the 
Gothic  branch  and  that  much  more  largely  than  most 
suppose,  be  tangled  etymologically  in  a  web  of  inextri- 
cable confusion.  As,  on  Acro-Corinthus  the  classical 
scholar  might  stand  and  look  down  with  swimming 
eyes  upon  the  Saronic  gulf  to  the  eastward,  wdiere 
Athens  still  glitters  in  her  beauty,  and  upon  the 
Corinthian  gulf  to  the  westward,  and  see  beyond  its 
waters  Parnassus,  sacred  to  the  Muses,  with  its  snow- 
white  crown,  having  the  fountain  of  Castalia  in  its 
bosom  and  the  oracle  of  Delphi  at  its  feet :  so,  standing 
on  the  heights  of  the  Latin  language,  as  on  a  tall  isth- 
mus rising  between  two  oceans,  the  far-off  Past  and  the 
Present,  we  can  look  before  us  and  see  the  waves  of  the 
elder  ages  as  they  bear  on  their  bosom  the  wonders  of 
India,  Persia,  and  Greece,  roll  and  break  at  our  feet ; 
or,  turn  and  behold  behind  us  the  vast  expanse  of  the 
future  covered  with  the  riches  of  all  nations,  retiring  in 
the  far-off  horizon  from  the  view,  until  sky  and  sea 


284  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY, 

mingling  together  conceal  it  in  their  own  indistinguish- 
able confusion.  Here  is  the  high,  true  position  for  a 
complete  survey  of  the  facts  of  comparative  etymology. 
From  it,  with  a  clear  glass,  the  indistinct  and  mysterious 
forms  of  words  are  resolved  in  every  direction  into  well- 
defined  elements  of  vision.  And  as  mountain  ranges 
are  precipitous  on  one  side,  while  on  the  other,  like 
weary  camels,  they  couch  down  gradually  into  the  vales 
below,  so  the  farther  side  of  the  Latin,  its  archaic 
Sanskrit  side,  presents  a  bold,  sharp  outline  from  its 
summit  to  its  base ;  while  its  hither  Romanic  side  sub- 
sides in  every  variety  of  slope  and  sweep  and  angle  and 
curve  so  gently  into  the  modern  languages  of  our 
times,  that  it  is  almost  hard  to  say  where  it  ceases  to 
be  Latin  and  where  it  begins  to  be  something  else. 

But  in  no  language  is  the  area  of  etymological  re- 
search so  wide,  and  covered  with  such  untold  riches,  as 
in  our  own  language.  He  who  would  gather  up  the 
treasures  of  English  etymology  must  make  his  garners 
large;  for  the  harvest  spreads  over  many  fields  and 
many  centuries.  Not  only  our  own  indigenous  growths 
are  in  it,  but  exotics  also  from  every  clime  and  eveiy 
age  in  measureless  abundance.  As  in  no  nation  there 
has  been  such  a  commingling  of  all  affinities  of  blood, 
so  also  in  no  language  has  there  been  such  a  mixture 
of  all  etymologies  as  in  the  English ;  and  as  under  the 
power  of  ancient  Rome  all  nations  soon  became  Avoven 
into  one  common  web  with  her,  of  fortune  and  of  fate. 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  285 

SO,  under  the  absorbing  and  assimilating  energies  of  the 
Enghsh  mind  and  tongue,  the  wealth  of  thought  and 
of  speech  contributed  by  all  nations  has  been  incorpo- 
rated into  the  greatness  of  our  mother-tongue.  The 
sentiments,  experiences  and  utterances  of  every  age  and 
of  every  zone,  belonging  to  the  whole  wide  circumfer- 
ence of  the  earth  and  to  the  whole  mountain-range  of 
human  development,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest 
point,  are  in  it  and  in  the  very  forms  in  which,  at  the 
time,  they  burst  spontaneously  into  view.  Into  the 
English,  as  into  the  bosom  of  a  great  central  sea,  all 
the  streams  of  the  past  and  present  have  poured  and 
are  still  pouring  their  varied  contents. 

"  Every  language,"  says  Richter,  "  is  a  dictionary 
of  faded  metaphors."  Our  languages  in  their  present 
state,  as  known  to  the  inner  consciousness  of  those  who 
use  them,  are  but  herbariums  in  which  lie  pressed  and 
preserved,  but  unappreciated,  the  dry  forms  of  words 
that  once  were  green  with  life  and  beauty,  and  as  now 
handled  are  but  the  relics  of  their  former  selves.  As 
used  by  the  ancients,  to  whom  they  were  vernacidar, 
the  dead  languages :  as  with  very  ironical  propriety 
they  are  often  called  by  those  who  thus  speak  of  them, 
since  in  all  their  inner  beauties  as  well  as  in  all  their 
outward  scientific  relations,  they  are  so  opaque  and 
dead  to  them :  were  full,  in  whatever  light  they  saw 
them,  of  ever-changing,  opaline  brilliancy.  "  Apples 
of  gold  in  pictm-es  of  silver"  were    those    dear  old 


286  THE    SCIENCE    OP    ETYMOLOGY. 

"words  fitly  spoken,"  to  their  interior  sense;  yea 
rather  gems  which  had  been  dropped  to  their  con- 
sciousness from  a  mother's  hand  into  theirs,  and  which 
seemed  in  their  very  brightness  to  reflect  forever  that 
mother's  smile.  And  to  the  student  now  who  compre- 
hends the  power  of  words,  to  whom  they  are  transpa- 
rent, revealing  all  their  inmost  essence  to  his  linger- 
ing gaze,  their  lost  light  returns  again,  and  language 
is  evermore  living  and  lovely.  Each  lettered  page  is  to 
him  a  mass  of  shining  wonders,  a  tree  of  Eden,  loaded 
with  blossoms  clustering  upon  blossoms,  on  boughs 
bending  and  Avaving  with  the  precious  weight.  Lan- 
guage is  to  his  eye  one  vast  redundant  flora,  fuU  of 
the  glitter  of  leaves,  the  scent  of  flowers,  and  the  lus- 
ciousness  of  celestial  fruitage. 

Each  language,  but  most  of  all  for  our  benefit  our 
own  language  and  those  great  languages,  the  Greek  and 
Latin,  with  which  it  is  so  intimately  connected,  need 
to  be  elaborated,  and  to  have  all  their  inward  treasures 
brought  forth  into  clear  view :  in  order  that  language,  as 
such,  the  greatest  of  all  the  arts  of  life,  may  be  truly 
comprehended  by  each  succeeding  generation  of  edu- 
cated men,  and  employed  by  them  according  to  all  its 
deep,  real  capabilities,  in  the  divine  contact  of  mind 
with  mind,  and  the  still  diviner  labor  of  mind  for  mind. 
As  the  body  is  the  temple  of  the  soul  and  should  be  full, 
as  it  is,  of  strange  adaptations  to  the  wonderful  sensi- 
bilities and  energies  of  its  innnortal  inhabitant ;  so,  Ian- 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  287 

guage  is  the  temple  of  tliouglit  and  love,  the  only  exer- 
cises that  ally  earth  to  heaven,  and  man  to  God,  and  is 
full  of  all  beauteous  adaptations  and  uses  which  deserve 
to  be  searched  and  seen,  as  the  divinely-constructed 
organ  of  communication  between  finite  minds  on  the 
one  hand,  and  also  between  mankind  and  the  God  that 
made  them,  on  the  other, 

11.  The  history  of  classical  and  vernacular  ety- 
mology. 

This  fully  rendered,  would  involve  a  complete  his- 
tory of  classical  and  comparative  philology.  But  as  the 
details  of  such  a  history  have  a  special  character  of 
their  own,  and  are  presented  in  the  preceding  essay,  it 
will  be  sufficient  here  to  sketch  its  general  philosophical 
outline.  There  have  been  three  different  stao-es  in  its 
development : 

1.  That  of  its  popular  empirical  treatment, 

2.  That  of  its  literary  empirical  treatment, 

3.  That  of  its  true  scientific  treatment,  under  the 
exact  laws  of  modern  philology. 

The  etymological  instinct  is  very  common  in  all 
nations,  among  the  thinking  classes.  It  is  as  natural 
and  pleasant  for  those  who  reason  at  all,  to  think  about 
the  origin  and  connection  of  words,  as  about  relation 
and  dependence,  antecedents  and  consequents,  cause 
and  effect, in  any  other  direction.  There  is  full  scope 
here  for  the  play  of  all  those  faculties  that  demand  ad- 
venture and  enjoy  invention.     The  ancients  were  quite 


288  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

addicted  to  this  popular,  random  style  of  etymologizing, 
as  is  manifest  in  mucli  of  their  mythology,  their  early 
traditionary  history,*  and  their  poetical  legends.  Ety- 
mology in  this  period  of  its  development  leads  of  course 
but  a  vagrant  life,  and  neither  receives  nor  deserves 

*  Thus  the  names  Romulus  and  Remus  from  piifirj  strength,  (Cf. 
Roma)  and  Numa  from  vofj-os,  law,  are  but  beautiful  etymological 
hieroglyphs,  in  legendary  not  exact  historj%  of  the  first  reign  of 
physical  force  in  Rome,  and  of  the  subsequent  establishment  of  law  and 
order,  among  the  people.  So  also  the  story  of  the  she-wolf  suckling 
Romulus  and  Remus,  from  the  name  of  the  nurse  Lupa ;  that  of  the 
low  origin  of  Servius  Tullius,  from  the  resemblance  of  Servius  to  Servus  ; 
that  of  Brutus  (brutus,  stupid),  reserving  himself  under  a  mask  of 
pretended  idiocy,  for  the  crisis  that  was  to  come ;  that  of  iMutius 
Scaevola  (from  scaevus,  left-handed),  calmly  burning  off  his  right  hand 
before  Porsena,  and  that  of  Valerius  Corvus,  on  whose  helmet  a  crow 
lighted,  and,  flying  in  the  fiice  of  the  opposing  Gaul,  made  him  an  easy 
prey  to  his  sword,  from  corvus.  a  crow,  with  other  stories  like  them 
originated  merely  in  an  etymological  wa3^  So  also  the  conception  of 
the  one-eyed  Cyclops,  hideous  and  huge  (from  kvk\(o,  in  a  circle,  and 
&^,  the  ej'e),  was  born  in  the  brain  of  some  ancient  etymologist,  as  was 
that  of  the  Harpies  (fem.  pi.  of  afjuvms,  and  moaning  lit.  the  seizors),  a 
name  used  originally  to  describe  violent  winds,  blowing  off  the  coast 
of  the  Ionian  Sea,  as  their  names  also  show,  Podarge  (swift-footed), 
Aello  (whirler)  and  Ocypete  (flying  rapidly),  daughters  of  Thaumas 
(wonder)  and  Electra  (the  lightning)  ;  and  the  details  of  the  Greek 
theogon}^  were  of  the  same  source,  as  of  Uranus,  Ge,  Chronus,  the 
Titans,  &c.  One  of  the  best  examples  in  modern  times  of  this  etymo- 
logical way  of  writing  history,  that  yet  never  actually  transpired,  occurs 
in  those  writers,  and  there  are  several  of  them,  who  have  from  Richard's 
title,  Coeur  de  Lion,  invented  a  story  that  he  really  slew  a  lion  in 
single  combat  and  so  recorded  a  fable  of  their  own  devising,  as  a  veri- 
table reality.  '•  The  name."  says  Buckle  (Hist.  Civilization,  England, 
vol.  i.  p.  218),  '•  gave  rise  to  the  storj^ ;  the  story  confirmed  the  name ; 
and  another  fiction  was  added  to  that  long  series  of  falsehoods,  of  which 
history  mainly  consisted  during  the  Jliddle  Ages." 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  289 

much  respect.  It  may  be  found  in  this  form  now  in 
many  a  rural  district,  making  its  home  at  the  house  of 
the  town-wit,  the  country-doctor  or  the  village-peda- 
gogue.* Nothing  is  aimed  at  in  this  style  of  etymolo- 
gizing beyond  the  excitement  of  others'  curiosity,  or  the 
show  of  a  little  learning  or  of  a  little  wit ;  and  it  is 
subjectively  but  the  indulgence  of  some  momentary, 
frivolous  or  selfish  impulse,  out  of  which  nothing  great 
or  good  was  ever  born ;  while,  objectively,  it  has  no 
basis  for  its  support,  but  mere  shadowy  empirical  coinci- 
dences. 

*  In  such  a  brain  etymologies  like  the  following  will  be  spon- 
taneously born,  and  held  in  high  honor  as  its  own  children :  catch 
from  cat,  ravenous  from  raven,  rat  from  rapto,  fudge  from  fiigio. 
So'  similarly  such  empirics  would  be  sure  that  Jove  comes  from  Je- 
hovah ;  German  from  germanus ;  dine  (Fr.  diner,  Lat.  dc-coenare)  from 
Seinveiv ;  cover  (Fr.  couvrir,  Lat.  cooperire)from  the  Hebrew  -isa  kaphar ; 
and  in  German  auge,  the  eye,  from  Gr.  aiyrj,  a  word  certainly  very 
much  like  it  by  accident.  The  argument  for  each  and  all  of  these 
cases  is  one  and  the  same,  and  it  is  this  :  why  not  ?  In  some  cases  sup- 
posed etymologies  have  sufficed  to  alter  the  spelling  of  words,  as  in 
the  word  surname  (supra-nomen,  so  called  because  originally  written 
directly  over  the  Christian  name)  which  has  been  altered  by  many  to 
sir-name ;  and  so  postumous  (Lat.  postumus)  has  been  altered  by  a 
false  theory  to  posthumous  (as  if  derived  from  post-|-humus).  In  the 
phrases  "you  had  better;"  '•  you  had  rather,"  instances  of  the  same 
sort  occur,  involving  even  a  grammatical  absurdity.  The  original 
forms  "  you  would  better  "  or  "  would  rather  "  became  shortened  in 
common  parlance  into  you'd  better,  or  you'd  rather,  and  then  v/ere 
afterwards,  it  seems,  drawn  out,  by  a  foolish  and  utterly  uugram- 
matical  analysis  of  the  contracted  form  into  "  had  rather  "  and  "  had 
better ;  "  which  nearly  every  even  educated  man  now  says,  in  careful 
composition  as  well  as  in  conversation,  although  this  intrusive  verb 
"  had  "  can  by  no  possibility  be  parsed  by  any  one. 


290  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

In  the  second  phase  of  its  existence,  that  of  hter- 
ary  empiricism,  its  nature  is  no  higher  than  in  the 
first,  but  only  its  position.  It  no  longer  wanders 
about  unwritten  from  mouth  to  mouth,  but  has  a  fixed 
habitation  upon  the  lettered  page.  It  has  -passed  witli 
favor  or  indulgence  the  ordeal  of  deliberate  scrutiny, 
and  been  exalted  on  account  of  its  supposed  worthiness 
to  an  intended  seat  of  high  and  permanent  honor. 
Such  etymologies,  lexicographers  and  others  glean  some- 
times with  great  care  from  standard  authors ;  but  they 
are  all  empirical  in  their  own  nature,  and  worthless. 
Science  has  foundations  of  its  own  Avhich  are  divine,  and 
its  character  can  neither  be  made  nor  unmade  by  those 
who  describe  it.  Truth  is  still  truth,  however  it  is 
overlooked,  and  error  cannot  be  sanctified  by  being  ex- 
alted into  a  high  position,  or  by  being  worshipped  by 
a  crowd  of  false  admirers.  In  this  meagre,  false,  em- 
jDirical  state,  classical  etymology  has  wholly  existed  un- 
til of  late,  and  in  fact  exists  almost  wholly  now.  Mere 
orthographical  or  orthoepical  resemblances  suffice  among 
empirics,  to  introduce,  without  farther  philological  in- 
quiry, any  word  into  their  magic  circle  of  approved 
guesses  and  fancies.  A  radical  difference  of  meaning 
in  the  case  is  as  readily  disposed  of  by  them,  as  was 
any  antithesis  of  fact  and  theor}''  by  the  ancient 
philosophers ;  since  they  are  utterly  ignorant  of  that 
elementary  doctrine  of  all  true  philology,  that  every 
word  has  a  fundamental  theme  or  base  which  deter- 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  291 

mines  absolutely  its  personal  identity ;  and  since  like 
phrenologists  they  have  a  system  of  ideas,  every  one  of 
which  has  a  double  polarity  in  it,  by  which  it  can  he 
accommodated  to  any  position  or  motion  desired.  The 
celebrated  etymology  of  "  lucus,"  a  grove,  "  a  ?io7i  lu- 
cendo,"  from  its  not  having  any  light,  illustrates  the 
ease  with  which  such  minds  can  weave  positive  and  nega- 
tive ideas  together,  into  the  meshes  of  their  theories. 
The  first  step  taken  in  classical  etymology  was  of 
this  simple  empirical  kind.  The  second  step  forward 
in  Latin  etymology  was  taken  so  feebly,  as  to  be  rather 
the  manifestation  of  a  desire  for  progression,  though  in 
quite  blind  unconsciousness  where  or  how  to  make  it : 
that  of  introducing  on  a  very  hmited  scale  some  simple 
Greek  correspondences,  and  in  a  very  cautious  manner 
and  one  not  involving  any  idea  of  their  mutual  relation. 
From  this  advance  was  realized  only  the  slender  ad- 
vantage of  informing  such  minds,  as  had  not  before  ob- 
served the  wide  and  wonderful  plexus  of  unities  and 
analogies  covering  both  languages,  that  they  had  had 
at  some  time  a  blended  life '  and  a  strong,  mutually 
penetrative  influence  on  each  other.  The  third  step  was 
one  entirely  false  in  its  whole  theory,  and  in  all  the  re- 
sults achieved  under  it :  that  of  deriving  the  Latin  im- 
mediately from  the  Greek.  This  was  the  prevailing 
conception  of  the  relation  of  the  two  languages  at  the 
beginning  of  this  century,  among  the  best  scholars." 

*  Ludwig  Ross,  an  extensive  traveller  in  Greece  and  Asia  Minor, 


292  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

As  for  lexicography  it  is  in  our  best  Latin,  Greek, 
and  English  dictionaries,  far  behind  the  present  advanced 
state  of  philology.  The  etymologies  to  be  found,  at 
this  moment,  in  the  leading  classical  dictionaries-  of  this 

but  a  far  better  observer  of  men  than  student  of  words,  has  undertaken 
in  a  formal  treatise  entitled,  "  Italiker  und  Graken.  Sprachen  die  Rcimer 
Sanskrit  oder  Griechisch,"  not  only  to  revive  the  idea  of  the  direct 
Greek  origin  of  the  Latin,  but  also  to  establish  it  as  a  fixed  fact,  upon 
an  adequate  scientific  basis.  He  exhibits  a  large  number,  and  this  is 
all,  of  real  correspondences  between  the  two  languages,  which  every  San- 
skrit philologer  is  equally  eager  to  make  good.  Any  amount  of  such 
resemblances  does  not  however  exclude  an  equal  number,  of  even 
higher  value  (because  so  much  more  remote  and,  previously,  so  unan- 
ticipated) in  the  Sanskrit.  Many  that  he  quotes  as  existing  between 
the  Greek  and  Latin  are  ridiculous  enough,  as  bellum  and  noXfuoi : 
multus  and  ttoXvs  :  frons  and  (jip^jv :  pars  and  fiepos :  vates  and  ndin-is : 
virago  and  virgo  with  fxelpa^  :  juvenis  and  dioyevqs-:  litera  and  bicjidepa: 
famulus  and  daXapos  :  finis  and  dls:  verto  and  Tpenoi :  altus  and  alnvs  : 
bonus  and  evs :  pulcher  and  ptXixpos :  caedo  and  Trai'w :  quatio  and 
KOTTTco  :  Kpt((x}  and  rideo. 

His  chief  outlay  of  feeling  against  the  modern  school  of  philologists, 
is  directed  against  Mommsen,  whom  he  represents  as  '•  almost  the 
Oracle  of  the  younger  community  (in  Germany)  whose  crowned 
opinions  are  adopted,  though  unsubstantiated  and  undemonstrated,  by 
thousands."  He  takes  indeed  his  own  key-note,  from  one  of  ^lommsen's 
statements  to  this  effect,  that  "  the  old  opinion,  that  the  Latin  is  but  a 
mixed  language  composed  of  Greek  and  un-Greek  elements,  is  now 
abandoned  on  all  sides ;  and  that,  while  some  still  regard  it  as  a  mix- 
ture of  two  nearly  allied  Italian  dialects,  one  must  needs  ask  in  vain, 
for  any  philological  or  historical  necessity  for  such  a  supposition."  But 
he  complains,  "  that  so  profound  a  philosopher,  on  the  later  political  and 
juridical  relations  and  circumstances  of  the  Romans  and  their  later  lan- 
guage and  literature,  should  have  treated  in  a  way  of  such  unworthy 
trifling  the  ethnographic  relations  of  the  Latins  and  of  the  people  of 
Middle  and  Southern  Italy,  as  shows  that  he  did  not  consider  it  worth 
the  while,  to  make  any  earnest  investigations  on  the  subject."     His 


niE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  293 

country,  are  almost  wholly  those  which  are  self-evident ; 
while  the  small  remainder  is  composed  of  mere  guesses, 
derived  from  no  philosophical  principles,  and  suggesting 
none.  Beyond  this  narrow  range  of  etymological  simpli- 
cities and  novelties,  the  rest  of  the  language  stretches  out 
before  the  lexicographer's  eye,  and  under  his  influence  be- 
fore that  of  the  student  also,  as  a  broad  waste  of  unknown 
land.  A  true  map,  indeed,  of  the  present  state  of  classical 
etymology,  as  presented  in  our  best  dictionaries,  would 
be  as  comical  to  one  at  all  acquainted  with  Indo-Eu- 
ropean philology,  as  a  Chinese  map  of  the  world  to  one 
versed  in  geography.  It  would  be  a  map  of  every 
thing  as  it  is  not,  and  of  nothing  as  it  is.  Preund 
represents  the  best  development  of  Latin  lexicography 
hitherto  accessible  to  American  scholars :  Passow,  as 
improved  by  Host  and  others,  that  of  Greek ;  and  Web- 
ster, that  of  English.  These  all  performed  great  labors 
and  achieved  great  results  ;  and  their  names  will  ever 
stand  high  on  the  list  of  man's  benefactors.  But  on 
none  of  them  had  the  splendid  orb  of  modern  philology 
risen  in  its  strength.  It  was  in  1833  that  Bopp  began 
to  pubKsh  that  great  work,  his  Comparative  Grammar, 
which  in  the  department  of  language  like  Bacon's 
Novum  Organon  in  that  of  physical  science,  lighted  the 

own  position  is  that  "  over  all  Middle  and  Southern  Italy  only  one 
great  family-tongue  prevailed,  the  Greek ;  and  that  Latins  and  Vol- 
seians,  Sabines  and  Oscans,  Messapians  and  lapygians  spoke  only  de- 
generate Greek,  and  that  even  in  the  Tuscan  there  are,  at  all  events, 
Greek  admixtures. 
20 


294  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

world  on  the  way  to  a  new  era.  And  yet  Preund, 
whose  eyes  actually  beheld  the  rising  dawn  of  compara- 
tive philology,  the  only  one  of  the  three  lexicographers 
mentioned  whose  feet  stood  consciously  upon  the  mar- 
gin of  the  new  order  of  linguistic  researches  and  re- 
sults, was  in  the  midst  of  his  long  labors,  at  this  very 
time,  and,  in  January,  1834,  wrote  in  his  preface  the 
following  words :  "  The  question  of  the  origin  of  the 
Latin  language  is  beginning  to  be  far  more  involved 
than  many  are  willing  to  believe.  Germanism  is  op- 
posing the  Sanskrit  with  powerful  weapons,  and  urges 
its  claims  to  be  the  origin  of  Latin.  The  author  there- 
fore feels  that  he  would  be  called  overhasty,  if  he  al- 
lowed the  Sanskrit  or  the  German  element  to  have  the 
predominance  in  his  work."  In  the  light  of  the  present 
hour,  how  strange  even  to  ridiculousness  seems  this 
language.  It  is  by  such  strong  high  waymarks  stand- 
ing up  in  the  past,  that  we  can  best  realize  how  great 
progress  has  been  made  during  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century,  as  in  every  thing  else  so  also  in  the  elements 
and  processes  of  classical  study.  To  dress,  now,  Latin 
lexicography  in  the  etymology  of  Ereund's  day,  when 
such  a  man  as  he  thought  that  it  was  quite  as  likely  as 
not  that  the  Latin  was  but  a  child  of  the  German  that 
had  been  lost  in  other  days,  but  was  now  found  again, 
would  be  like  undertaking  to  parade  a  full-grown  man 
of  our  times,  in  the  clothes  of  some  petty  underling  that 
lived  half  a  century  ago.     Our  lexical  Latin  etymology 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  295 

wears,  therefore,  to  one  whose  eye  is  open  to  the  charms 
and  claims  of  Indo-European  philology,  the  most 
grotesque  Lilliputian  dimensions  :  casting  the  reproach 
of  its  dwarfishness  and  deformity  upon  the  whole  as- 
pect of  the  lexicography  into  which  it  is  intnxluced. 
In  Prcund's  day  Doderlcin's  star  was  in  the  ascendant, 
in  etymology,  who  published  his  "  Lateinischc  Syno- 
nyme  and  Etymologieen"  in  1826.  He  derived  the 
Latin  immediately  from  the  Greek,  so  far  as  he  could 
either  find  or  devise  any  similarity  between  them.  And 
many  and  great  were  the  tortuosities  of  his  inventive 
genius  in  working  its  way  through  such  a  labyrinthine 
experiment.  The  Latin  and  the  Greek  are  twin  sisters, 
the  Latin  being  the  more  antique  in  its  features  and 
bearing  of  the  two,  and  having  in  its  form  and  face  and 
character  much  more  resemblance  to  their  elder  sister, 
the  Sanskrit,  and  so  to  the  common  parent  of  them  all, 
than  the  Greek.  Of  what  greater  absurdity,  therefore, 
could  an  etymologist  be  guilty,  than  that  of  undertaking 
to  represent  the  Latin  as  the  daughter  of  the  Greek, 
its  twin  sister  ?  With  nmch  labor  in  so  false  a  direc- 
tion, Doderlein  has  succeeded  in  building  up,  in  his 
various  works,  a  vast  pile  of  learned  and  ingenious  but 
false  and  worthless  novelties  and  blunders  ;  a  remark- 
able specimen  of  a  patient,  vigorous,  enthusiastic  scholar, 
industriously  misspending  all  his  days.  There  has  been 
great  elaboration  in  the  argument  of  his  life,  but  it  has 
been  developed,  throughout,  from  entirely  wrong  prem- 


296  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

ises.  Through  Freund's  deference  to  his  false  views, 
he  has  been  permitted  to  perpetuate  the  Wight  of  his 
errors,  through  this  generation  and  perhaps  through 
another,  upon  the  scholarship  of  other  lands  than  his 
own,  where  the  light  of  better  minds  has  sufficed  to  su- 
persede forever  the  false  glare  of  his  philological  mis- 
conceptions. To  Freund*  we  must  give,  however,  the 
credit  of  having  uttered  his  deep  sense  of  the  want  of 
a  true  etymology.  He  says,  that  "  a  scientific  exhibition 
of  the  genealogy  of  words  is  needed,  but  hithei-to  [1833] 
has  not  been  formed  into  a  separate  department  of  the 
general  science  of  language,  as  it  ought  to  be.  In  time 
there  must  and  will,  without  doubt,  be  found  a  genealogy 
of  words,  which  shall  take  its  place  as  a  science  by  the  side 
of  lexicography."  But  in  the  few  correspondences  of  the 
Latin  with  the  Greek  which  Freund  ventured  to  indi- 
cate, how  narrow  was  the  prospect  that  he  opened  of 
their  really  wide  and  wonderful  relations  !  And  what 
an  utter  w^ant  of  any  system  for  its  facts,  and  of  any 
solution  for  its  difficulties.  In  this  period  of  well-nigh 
universal  darkness  in  philology,  but  twenty-five  years 
ago,  the  field   of  classical  etymology  was  a  favorite 

*  While  Freund  is  so  deficient  in  all  true  etymological  relations,  he 
is  much  to  be  commended  for  the  simple,  clear,  critical  and  condensed 
character  of  most  of  his  researches  and  statements  in  other  respects, 
and  yet  his  ideal  was  throughout  above  his  attainments.  His  dis- 
crimination of  words  as  ante-classical,  classical  and  post-classical,  is 
especially  one  of  the  highest  benefits  that  could  be  conferred  on  young 
composers  in  Latin. 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  297 

hunting  ground  for  every  sort  of  linguistic  vagary,  by 
all  kinds  of  scliolastic  pretenders,  who  kept  ever 
doubling  again  and  again  upon  their  own  tracks,  and 
ended  all  their  toils  only  in  making  game  of  themselves 
to  every  intelligent  beholder.  Many,  like  Doderlein, 
derived  the  Latin  from  the  Greek.  Schwenck  pub- 
lished in  1827  an  Etymological  Latin  Dictionary  in 
German,  deriving  the  Latin  from  the  Greek,  for  the 
most  part;  but  sometimes  also  from  the  German. 
But,  while  its  references  to  the  Greek  are  somewhat 
copious,  they  have  no  scientific  basis  and  are  all  em- 
pirical, and  many  of  them  far-fetched  and  false.  Valpy 
also  published  in  English  a  Latin  Etymological  Dic- 
tionary, in  the  same  spirit  and  with  the  same  faults  as 
Schwenck.  "  It  will  be  said,"  he  says,  "  that  there  are 
numerous  words  which  we  cannot  show  to  be  taken 
from  the  Greek.  Doubtless  it  is  so,  although  the  num- 
ber of  such  words  is  constantly  decreasing."  Eor 
works  based  on  such  fundamentally  wrong  ideas,  both 
of  these  dictionaries  possess  much  scholarly  merit. 

Others,  like  Jakel,  in  his  "  Germanische  Ursprung 
Der  Lateinischen  Sprache"  (in  1830),  undertook,  like 
one  hunting  for  eggs  among  ashes,  to  find  the  origin  of 
the  Latin  in  the  old  Gothic  ;  others  still,  like  the  great 
Gesenius,  connected  it,  very  largely,  with  the  Hebrew. 
Nork,  accordingly,  prepared  a  Latin  dictionary  on  this 
basis  ;  and  to  one  whose  philological  views  are  broad 
enough  to  enable  him  to  appreciate  the  real  quality  of 


298  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

tlie  book,  it  is  full  of  all  humorous  elements.  A  brief 
quotation  will  show,  at  once,  his  position.  He  says 
[1827],  "  the  relationship  of  the  Hebrew  with  the 
Greek  and  Latin  cannot  be  denied,  for  the  following 
reasons,  namely  :  because  the  Tuscans,  like  the  Cartha- 
ginians, claimed  derivation  from  the  inhabitants  of 
Tyre  ;  and  also  the  Hebrews,  the  neighbors  of  the 
Phoenicians,  like  the  Greeks,  had  constructed  their  lan- 
guage out  of  Egyptian  elements,  while  the  Egyptians 
themselves,  but  colonists  from  Meroe,  had  been  with 
the  Ethiopians  emigrants  from  India  ;  and  hence  their 
agreement  in  language,  culture,  and  philosophy.  Hence 
it  comes  that  almost  all  the  names  of  the  Greek  and 
Tuscan  gods  can  be  deciphered  only  through  the 
Hebrew  (as  Dido,*  Hecate,  Minerva,  Venus,  etc.). 
But  also  other  words  in  those  languages  have  rewarded 
the  search  for  their  origin,  only  when  made  in  the 
Hebrew,  as  ^aXxos,  brass,  from  p'^n  {chalalc)  to  divide ; 
XQvoo;,  gold,  from  7"]n  {charats),\  to  dig  out,  a  name 
which,  applying  to  every  metal,  came  to  be  affixed,  j^j^^r 
excellence,  to  gold.  So  also  the  root  of  capio,  to  take, 
is  found  in  P]?  {cajpli),  the  hand ;  as  of  cupio,  to  desire, 
in  ri^^  (^guplt),  the  body,  and  hence  desire,"  etc.  AVhal 
a  mass  of  misstatements  and  misconceptions !  Is  it 
any  wonder,  that  such  a  book  never  saw  a  second 
edition,  or  that  its  author  warned  his  readers  to  be 

*  Of  what  god  is  this  the  name  ? 
t  Tliis  verb  means  to  cut  into  or  on. 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  299 

careful  not  to  belong  to  a  class  who  had  sworn  to  any 
previous  master  ?  On  principles  like  these  one  might 
derive  any  language  from  any  other,  and  change  the 
order  of  their  sequence  one  to  the  other,  ad  libitum, 
forwards  and  backwards,  backwards  and  forwards, 
upside  down  and  downside  up,  and  still  always  pre- 
serve, unimpaired,  the  same  wonderful  beauty  of  con- 
nectiorf. 

A  new  Latin  Dictionary  by  Reinhold  Klotz,  Pro- 
fessor of  Classical  Philology  at  Leipsic,  has  just  appeared 
(1858),  which  is  in  decided  advance  of  Preund,  in  its 
critical  and  historical  aspects,  and  in  range  of  research, 
as  well  as  in  breadth  and  copiousness  of  details.  In 
respect  also  to  etymologies  lying  within  the  specific 
boundaries  of  the  Latin  language,  that  is,  within  the 
department  of  classical  philology,  as  technically  discrim- 
inated from  the  wider  and  richer  field  of  comparative 
philology,  with  which  however  its  connections  are,  after 
all,  so  vast  and  vital,  he  is  also  superior  to  Preund. 
But  alas  !  the  torch  of  Sanskrit  discovery  nowhere 
scatters  its  light  here,  and  the  eager  philological  student 
turns  away,  disappointed,  from  his  pages.  When  will 
the  day  arrive  when  in  our  Latin  school- lexicons  we 
shall  no  more  see  the  faces  of  Lobeck  and  Doderlein, 
Wachter  and  Scaliger,  or  Pestus,  Vossius  and  Varro, 
sitting  in  state  to  teach  us  as  authorities  the  native 
origin  and  sense  of  Avords  ;  but  when  in  their  places 
shall  appear,  in  higher  dignity  and  with  purer  light, 


300  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

the  forms  of  Bopp  and  Pott  and  Grimm,  Schleicher, 
Curtius,  Aufrecht,  Diefenbach,  Ebel  and  Kuhn. 

In  Greek  lexicography,  Passow  is  of  the  greatest 
merit  in  every  thing,  but  that  inner  presence  of  the 
true  etymological  element,  which  informs  a  dictionary 
with  so  much  of  its  higher  light  and  beauty.  He  lived 
and  labored,  as  a  lexicographer,  earlier  still  than  Preund ; 
having  published  the  first  edition  of  his  dictioTiary  in 
different  parts,  between  the  years  1818  and  1824. 
The  new  edition  of  Passow  by  Rost  and  others  was 
begun  tAventy  years  ago ;  and,  though  much  enlarged 
and  improved  through  this  long  course  of  years,  was 
begun  and  has  been  finished  without  the  introduction 
of  that  one  savory  element  of  philology,  so  necessary  to 
the  new  and  improved  taste  of  the  modern  scholar. 
Pape's  Greek  lexicon,  prepared  more  recently,  comes 
under  the  same  condemnation,  in  reference  to  its  supply 
of  any  etymological  stores  for  meeting  the  cravings  of 
those  desiring  more  philological  knowledge.  Kalt- 
schmidt's  comparative  and  etymological  Greek  diction- 
ary, published  in  1839,  is  an  approximation  in  both 
spirit  and  form  to  what  is  wanted,  but  much  beloAv  in 
quality.  It  is  not,  like  the  works  of  Grimm  and  Bopp 
and  Pott  and  the  leaders  in  the  new  philology,  vast  and 
profound,  but  is  often  fanciful  and  feeble,  and  therefore 
very  generally  unreliable ;  as  unsatisfactory  commonly 
in  its  conclusions  as  Benfey,  of  whom,  in  tliis  relation, 
he    constantly  reminds  an    investio-ator  ;    who,  while 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  301 

being  a  fine  Sanskrit  scholar,  is  yet  quite  a  visionary 
and  indifferent  etymologist.  Eichhoff  is  Kaltsclimidt's 
oracle  ;  and  in  so  far  as  he  follows  Eichhoff  he  is  always 
respectable,  and  in  many  cases  valuable,  as  a  leader  ; 
but  there  is  so  much  chaff  mingled  with  the  wheat  in 
his  lexicon,  that,  for  a  beginner  in  Greek  philology,  he 
is  more  dangerous  than  useful.  His  dictionary  was 
probably,  in  its  day,  equal  to  the  most  advanced  schol- 
arship of  the  times ;  and,  if  so,  it  serves  to  show  in  a 
striking  manner,  how  much  progress  has  been  made  in 
the  short  interval  betw^een.  No  adequate  work,  there- 
fore, has  yet  appeared  in  Latin  or  Greek  lexicography, 
in  the  department  of  etymology.  The  light,  in  which 
our  present  generation  of  classical  students  is  walking, 
is  :  like  that  of  the  fixed  stars,  which  are  so  far  from  us 
that  the  beams  which  we  are  now  receiving  from  them, 
actually  left  the  orbs  themselves  Avhole  centuries  ago  : 
that,  shed  from  the  best  scholarship  that  prevailed  a 
quarter  of  a  century  since,  instead  of  the  light  of  the 
foremost  minds  which  are  leading  the  scholarship  of 
our  day.  And  the  wonder  is,  that,  while  there  is  so 
much  bright  beautiful  light  on  the  mountain-tops  of 
the  classical  world,  it  creeps  down  so  slowly  into  the 
vast  cu'cumference  of  the  vales  below. 

As  for  our  own  vernacular  etymology,  since  our 
language  is  wholly  secondary  in  its  origin,  and,  so, 
mixed  and  modern  in  its  structure,  more  copious  ma- 
terials and  those  for  the  most  part  of  inherent  value. 


302  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

have  been  gatlierecl  by  Webster  and  preceding  lexicog- 
raphers, without  the  aid  of  comparative  philology,  than 
could  be  done  in  any  other  language.  But,  while  in 
certain  directions  and  on  certain  sides  of  the  language, 
much  labor  has  been  well  bestowed  in  making  collec- 
tions of  classical  and  Teutonic  correspondences,  as  well 
as  of  those  in  the  various  Romanic  languages,  with 
English  words,  here  all  the  effort  bestowed  or  designed 
to  be  has  ceased.  The  facts  established,  or  supposed 
to  be  established,  have  not  been  afterwards  selected  and 
arranged  and  compacted  together,  within  the  bonds  of 
any  true  comprehensive  scientific  system.  No  phonetic 
principles  have  been  developed,  serving  to  ascertain  or 
eclaircise  all  that  large  and  best  class  of  etymological 
facts,  which  are  a  little  removed  from  immediate  dis- 
covery, and  so  constitute,  when  found,  the  satisfying 
reward  of  successful  scientific  research.  It  is  therefore 
but  a  mere  chaos  of  etymologies  that  English  lexicog- 
raphy yet  fmiiishes  ;  a  jumble  of  true  things  and  false, 
more  like  the  extended  ruins  of  some  huge  edifice,  than 
hke  a  structure  built  w^ith  jealous  care,  to  stand  high 
and  strong  in  its  appointed  place.  Under  the  princely 
tread  of  the  new  philology,  nudtitudes  of  before  valued 
resemblances  in  English  etymology  are  at  once  trampled 
down,  as  mere  stubble.  Much  of  such  a  romantic 
style  of  etymologizing,  as  that  with  which  Home  Tooke 
amused  himself  and  his  readers,  in  his  "  Diversions  of 
Purley,"    disappears  at  once  in  the  light  of  modern 


THE    SCIEN'CE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  303 

scholarship,  as  Avoiild  mere  elegant  frost-work  Lcforc  a 
bright  sun.  The  etymological  treasures  which AVebster 
gathered  together,  with  such  scholarly  industry  and 
delight,  excite  our  admiration  at  the  breadth  of  his 
research  and  the  luminous  accuracy  of  his  judgment, 
within  the  bounds  of  the  narrow  classical  scholarship  of 
his  day.  But  the  fountains  of  his  learning  were  not 
drawn,  since  they  could  not  be  at  first,  from  the  heights 
of  comparative  philology.  The  salt  of  the  Indo-Euro- 
pean element  is  not  in  them,  and  they  cannot  retain 
their  virtue.  Nothing  can  make  amends  for  this  fatal 
deficiency  but  their  perfect  renovation.  It  was  in 
1828,  five  years  before  Bopp  began  to  scatter  the  light 
of  his  great  discoveries  over  the  study  of  the  various 
languages  of  the  civilized  world,  that  Webster  published 
his  large  dictionary  ;  and,  when  in  1840  he  issued  a 
new  and  last  edition  improved  by  himself,  the  additions 
designed  to  be  made,  as  stated  by  him,  did  not  embrace 
at  all  the  results  of  the  new  philology.  "  The  improve- 
ments," he  says,  "  consist  chiefly  in  the  addition  of 
several  thousand  words  to  the  vocabulary,  the  division 
of  words  into  syllables,  and  the  correction  of  definitions 
in  several  of  the  sciences  ;  as  well  as  the  introduction 
of  many  phrases  from  foreign  languages,  and  of  many 
foreign  terms  used  in  books  of  music."  And  what  of 
all  tlie  wonderful  researches  and  results  of  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century,  serving  to  revolutionize  all  lexi- 
cography, all  classical  study,  and  the  whole  science  of 


304  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

language  ?  Watchman  on  the  towers  of  American 
philology,  what  of  the  night  ?  We  wait  for  an  answer 
after  twelve  years  have  come  and  gone,  and  only  echo 
answers,  w/iat !  The  Semitic  element,  to  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  fashion  of  the  times,  he  gave  in  1828  such 
false  prominence  in  the  department  of  etymology,  still 
retains  its  authority  or  rather  its  place  unimpaired  in 
1840.  And  neither  at  first  nor  at  last  was  any  order 
of  relation  indicated  or  conceived  to  exist  between  the 
different  correspondences  of  words,  which  are  strung 
together  as  carelessly  as  were  ever  beads  by  a  child 
upon  a  string.  Some  recent  hand  has  undertaken  to 
introduce  the  Sanskrit,  somehow,*  into  this  unmethod- 

*  As  a  specimen  of  the  utterly  unphilological  aspect  of  the  Sanskrit 
additions  made  to  Webster's  dictionary,  witness  the  followinjr  facts, 
taken  at  random  and  only  as  samples  of  multitudes  of  the  same  sort. 
The  Sanskrit  equivalent  is  placed  sometimes,  between  the  Latin  and 
Armenian  {navy) ;  sometimes  between  the  Russian  and  Hebrew  (to 
hear)  ;  and  at  other  times,  between  the  Persian  and  j\Ialaj^  (name),  and 
between  the  Hindu  and  Pei'sian  (new) ;  the  Swedish  and  Latin 
(stand)  ;  the  Swedish  and  Persian  (state) ;  the  Irish  and  Greek  (hrotc) ; 
the  Greek  and  Zend  (mead)  ;  the  Persian  and  Russian  (mother) ;  the 
Russian  and  Persian  (no) ;  the  Armenian  and  Persian  (seven)  ;  the 
Greek  and  Hebrew  (six),  and  between  the  Danish  and  Welsh  (luclc). 
and  so  on  ad  infinitum.  The  Sanskrit,  besides  being  thus  thrown  in 
as  a  makeweight,  among  a  mere  disjointed  mass  of  other  etymologies, 
is  introduced  only  in  a  very  partial,  meagre  way,  compared  with  its 
real  claims ;  and  it  is  always  placed  last  or  among  the  last,  instead  of 
first,  and  here  as  before  in  all  sorts  of  laughable  combinations ;  as,  after 
the  Irish  and  Slavonic  (night) ;  the  Hebrew  and  Arabic  (mix) ;  the 
Danish  and  Russian  [nail),  etc.  Could  a  more  perfect  wizard's  potion 
be  prepared  with  which  to  steep  the  thoughts  of  a  young  student  of 
English  etymology  in  "  utter  forgetfulness "  of  his  work  and  of  its 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  305 

ized  group  of  etymologies,  1)iit  not  in  a  way  to  throw 
any  light  upon  them,  or  to  draw  them  together  around 
any  common  point  of  crystallization,  or  even  of  central 
preparation  for  it.  The  new  comer  from  India,  instead 
of  being  treated  as  a  prince  royal  in  his  own  lawful 
dominions,  is  here  dishonored  actually  although  not 
designedly,  in  the  position  assigned  to  him,  as  if  a  mere 
bantling,  that  must  be  taken  care  of  in  some  way,  and 
so  is  left  by  the  way-side  to  be  taken  care  of  by  others. 
There  is  no  science  or  organific  law  prevailing  in  the 
series  of  connections  and  citations  exhibited,  nor  can 
there  be  at  any  time,  without  an  entire  reorganization 
of  the  materials  now  employed,  as  well  as  their  very 
great  enlargement.  The  structure,  therefore,  which 
Webster  built  so  industriously,  must  ere  long  be  inevi- 
tably razed  to  the  ground,  as  entirely  inadequate  to  the 
more  exact  and  vast  scholarship  of  succeeding  genera- 
tions ;  or,  be  so  built  over  and  around  with  higher  and 
better  forms  of  lexical  research,  as  to  disappear  itself 
Avholly  from  the  view.  The  scholarship  of  our  country, 
now  so  destitute  perchance  of  any  strong  traces  of  such 

benefits  ?  IIovv  does  it  remind  one  of  the  song  of  the  three  witches 
about  the  caldron  in  Macbeth : 

"  Black  spirits  and  white 
Red  spirits  and  gray, 
INIingle,  mingle,  mingle, 
You  that  mingle  may." 
Webster  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  accepted  as  a  standard  by  our  best 
scholars  in  orthography,  orthoepy  or  etymology,  but  only  in  definitions, 
in  which  he  is  certainly  the  foremost  of  all  English  lexicographers. 


306  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

a  fact,  will  soon  become  so  lofty  in  its  type,  so  broad  in 
its  demands,  and  so  irradiated  with  tlie  hio-hest  \vA\t  of 
the  age,  as  to  require  a  style  of  lexicography  that  shall 
embrace  in  it  a  full  view  of  all  the  vast  array  of  scien- 
tific results  developed  by  comparative  philology.  All 
honor  to  the  man  who  shall  arise  in  some  future  age,  a 
man  of  exalted  genius  and  splendid  learning,  to  do  this 
work !  He  will  be  born  ;  and  we  record  our  hearty 
salutations  to  him  in  advance,  across  the  stream  of 
time  which  separates  his  day  from  ours.  Let  the 
motto  of  our  American  scholars  be,  both  now  and  then, 
those  sublime  words  of  the  great  Passow  in  closing  his 
labors  in  lexicography  :  "  vorwiirts  !  aufwLirts  " !  for- 
wards !  upwards  ! 

The  only  lexicography  that  has  yet  appeared  in  any 
lansfuao-e    constructed  after  the  true  model  and  built 

O         O 

without  stint  of  means,  according  to  the  highest 
knowledge  of  the  age,  throughout  every  department  of 
its  wide-spread  details,  is  the  great  national  German 
Dictionary  that  the  brothers  Grimm  (Jacob  and  Wil- 
liam) are  now  laboriously  preparing,  and  of  which  they 
have  recently  published  the  first  part  of  the  third  vol- 
ume (1859),  extending  through  a  portion  of  the  letter  E. 
In  it  is  concentrated  all  the  hght  contained  in  the  his- 
•  tory,  literature,  and  constitution  of  the  language  itself, 
to  which  is  superadded  all  the  light  which  any  and 
every  other  language,  when  searched  through  all  its 
depths,  can  be  made  to  contribute  to  its  fulness,  along 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  307 

the  whole  chain  of  Indo-European  hmguages.  Tlie 
views  and  the  spirit  with  which  the  Grimms  undertake 
their  noble  work,  will  be  seen  by  a  brief  quotation  from 
the  introduction.  "  Etymology,"  they  say  (page  47), 
"  is  the  salt*  or  spice  of  a  dictionary,  without  the  addi- 
tion of  which  the  eating  of  it  would  still  remain  tasteless. 
The  German  language  hangs  by  a  chain  which  unites  it 
with  most  of  the  European  languages,  and  then  leads 
back  into  Asia  and  directly  to  the  Sanskrit,  Zend,  and 
Persian.  From  this  proceeds  a  fulness  of  phenomena 
and  relations,  sometimes  combined  and  sometimes  sepa- 
rated from  each  other,  as  distinct  peculiarities  of  differ- 
ent languages.  Not  a  few  links  indeed  of  the  great 
chain  have  fallen  out  and  disappeared,  so  that  many 
breaks  in  it  must  be  skipped  over.  Every  language 
possesses  also  in  it  an  inward  recuperative  force,  which 
gradually  heals  again  any  injury  done,  in  sundering 
its  connections.  But  this  it  can  accomplish  only  by 
various  compensations  and  special  appliances,  which 
afterwards  come  to  be  numbered  among  its  individual 
peculiarities  ;  and  hence  comes  the  necessity  of  recog- 
nizing the  limits  where  its  own  specialties  cease,  and 
where  it  enters  again  under  the  prevailing  law  of  the 
other  languages  with  which  it  is  allied." 

Surely  this  is  a  new  voice  in  the  realms  of  lexi- 
cography :  the  voice  of  one  of  earth's   greatest  men, 

*  •'Etymologie  is  das  Salz,  oder  die  Wiirze  des  Wurterbuclis,  ohne 
deren  Zuthat  seine  Speisc  noch  ungeschinack  bliebe,"  etc. 


308  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

coming  to  cast  down  the  fabrics  of  the  past ;  not  to  re- 
joice over  their  ruin,  but  to  gather  their  materials  care- 
fully together  in  order  to  build  them  anew,  with  other 
elements  of  greater  strength  and  beauty,  into  an  edifice 
of  grander  proportions,  and  adequate  to  the  wants  of 
the  highest  minds  of  the  age. 

Hail  to  the  new  era  of  linguistic  exploration  and 
discovery  !  The  age  of  empiricism  is  forever  gone  in 
etymology,  except  to  those  still  remaining  in  the  dark- 
ness of  the  past  generation,  and  even  they  can  see  that 
the  mountain -heights  above  them  are  gilded  with  an 
unwonted  brightness.  Comparative  etymology,  like  the 
solar  spectrum,  presents  in  separate  order, and  in  all  the 
harmony  of  their  mutual  connection,  the  different  rays 
that  combine  to  form  what  seems  the  single  and  simple 
light  of  each  distinct  language.  That  the  Sanskrit,  in 
both  its  orthoepical  and  grammatical  structure,  is  most 
intimately  related  to  all  the  languages  of  Europe,  ancient 
and  modem,  is  a  discovery  that  constitutes  one  of  the 
chief  wonders  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  is  one  of 
the  results  of  the  conquest  of  India :  a  tribute  first 
brought  back  by  English  scholarship  from  that  far-off, 
fabulous  land  of  gems  and  spices,  to  its  mother  country 
and  the  world  ;  but  yet  rather  announced,  than  revealed 
in  all  its  strange  fulness  of  evidence,  by  the  English. 
It  w^as  reserved  for  the  strong,  penetrative,  analytic, 
persevering  German  mind,  to  explore  and  develop  the 
untold  riches  of  this  new  discovery.     And  what  honor 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  309 

have  they  shed  upon  their  age,  Bopp  and  Pott  and 
Grimm,  and  a  host  of  others  hke  them  ;  for  they  form 
now  not  so  much  "  a  school "  as  an  army  :  similar  for 
honor,  as  adventurers  upon  these  new  seas  and  coasts  of 
the  science  of  language,  to  that  won  by  Columbus  and 
the  great  navigators  who  succeeded  him,  in  discovering 
new  countries  and  continents,  and  sailing  around  the 
world. 

The  absence  of  the  Indo-European  element  in 
Greek,  Latin,  English,  or  any  other  etymology,  makes 
it  like  a  system  of  chemistry,  in  which  oxygen,  that 
universal  agent  in  all  heat  and  moisture,  all  growth  and 
decay,  and  all  the  processes  of  life  and  of  death,  should 
be  utterly  wanting ;  or  one  of  geology,  in  which  no  ref- 
erence to  stratification  should  occur,  and  to  the  agency 
of  fire  and  water,  separate  and  combined,  in  building 
up  the  stage  of  this  world  as  it  is ;  or  a  piece  of  music, 
without  any  clef;  or  a  structure,  erected  according  to 
no  order  or  plan,  and  but  the  vast  and  shapeless  ag- 
glomeration of  the  elements  of  an  edifice,  but  itself  no 
edifice  at  all.  The  Semitic  languages  have  spread  over 
no  such  field  of  development,  as  the  Indo-European. 
The  Indo-European  languages  are  susceptible,  to  an  al- 
most unlimited  extent,  of  changes  made  by  the  combina- 
tion, composition,  and  attraction  of  their  elements  into 
ever-new  forms  and  uses.  They  have  a  wonderfully  mo- 
bile, elastic,  and  impressible  nature,  like  those  human 
constitutions  of  a  high  organization,  that  respond  so  sen- 

21 


310  THE    SCIENCE    Or    ETYMOLOGY. 

sitively  to  every  influence,  however  gentle  or  occasional, 
that  moves  upon  the  delicate  framework  of  theii'  being. 
A  royal  family  indeed  is  the  Indo-European  family  of 
languages  !  Each  of  its  members  is,  in  the  eye  of  art, 
"  a  study  "  by  itseK.  As  they  pass,  in  stately  review, 
before  the  mind :  the  Indian,  the  Grseco-Latin,  the 
Lettic,  the  Slavonic,  the  Gothic,  and  the  Celtic  famihes : 
each,  with  its  splendid  retinue  of  associated  languages, 
whose  heart  does  not  dilate  with  admiration  at  the 
pageant  ?  They  are  all  sons  of  one  ancient  mother,  and 
yet  they  have  taken  on  such  different  complexions,  in 
their  different  chmates,  and  acquired  such  a  different 
stature,  as  they  have  lived  on  the  mountains  or  the 
plains ;  and  such  a  softness  or  rigidity  of  muscular  de- 
velopment, as  they  have  toiled  or  lived  in  ease ;  and 
spoken  so  variously,  in  figures  or  with  plain  speech,  as 
they  have  maintained  an  out-door  or  an  in-door  life : 
that  they  have  been  supposed,  and  have  supposed 
themselves,  to  bear  no  relationship  to  each  other,  and 
nave  gloried  in  wars,  as  races,  one  against  the  other,  as 
if  they  were  natural  enemies  and  not  brethren.  And 
now,  after  four  thousand  years,  they  are  found  under 
the  light  of  that  sublime  inductive  philosophy,  which 
has  opened  so  many  other  wonders  to  modern  eyes,  to 
be  aU  most  intimately  allied  with  each  other ;  and  that,  by 
the  use  of  a  key  to  this  new  and  strange  discovery,  that 
had  lain  hidden,  for  thousands  of  years,  from  view,  in 
India. 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  311 

Etymology  is  an  inductive  science,  and  rests  upon 
the  same  strong  foundations,  in  this  respect,  as  any  of 
the  natural  sciences.  And  very  minute  and  wide  and 
fuU  have  been  the  inductions  made,  and  the  comparisons 
instituted.  The  evidence  of  its  facts  is  found  by  one 
who  examines  it,  to  be  so  various  and  so  duplicated  and 
reduphcated  upon  itself,  as  to  rise  everywhere,  in  high 
and  golden  piles  around  him,  towards  heaven.  They 
will  bear  the  closest  scrutiny,  however  often  repeated. 
Each  time  that  they  are  sifted,  they  only  appear  more 
clear  and  bright,  and  the  force  of  the  most  searching 
logic  brought  to  bear  upon  them  only  serves,  like  acid 
upon  gold,  not  to  destroy  but  to  beautify  still  more  their 
claims.  No  wonder  if,  under  the  former  empirical 
treatment  of  classical  etymology,  the  more  self-poised 
and  stable  scholars  of  the  day,  hke  those  thoughtful 
ancients  called  a&tot,  not  atheists,  who  rejected  the  con- 
temptible mythology  of  then*  times,  should  discard  the 
etymology,  falsely  so  called,  that  was  offered  them,  as 
having  in  it  neither  science  nor  sense.  But  mockery, 
now,  of  the  science  of  etymology,  or  even  indifference 
to  its  claims,  will  only  rebound  on  him  who  indulges 
it,  as  a  proof  of  the  shallowness  of  his  knowledge  and 
the  narrowness  of  his  ideas. 

III.    The  constituent  elements  of  etymology  as  a 
science. 

It  has  been  shown  that  neither  classical  nor  vernacu- 
lar etymology  have  risen,  by  themselves,  to  the  cUgnity 


312  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

of  a  science.  They  have  had  only  an  empirical  de- 
velopment, when  not  under  the  hght  of  comparative 
philology.  And  it  is  only,  when  grafted  on  the  root  of 
comparative  Indo-European  etymology,  that  they  pos- 
sess, either  of  them,  any  true  life  or  value.  The  proper 
discussion  of  this  part  of  the  subject  demands,  at  least, 
a  brief  presentation. 

1st.  Of  the  elements  of  comparative  etymology. 

2d.  Of  the  principles  that  prevail,  in  respect  to  the 
specific  etymology  of  any  individual  language,  under  its 
influence. 

1st.  The  constituent  elements  of  comparative  ety- 
mology are  threefold : 

(1 .)  Comparative  phonology, 

(2.)  Comparative  lexicography, 

(3.)  Comparative  grammar. 

It  is  not  meant  that,  historically,  these  different 
elements  actually  developed  themselves  in  this  order; 
but  that,  in  reference  to  their  mutual  connection,  this  is 
the  true  philosophic  order  of  their  arrangement. 

(1.)  Comparative  phonology. 

It  will  not  be  manifest  at  first,  probably,  to  every 
reader  what  this  word  may  mean,  and  yet  it  has  a  very 
definite  and  important  meaning.  Phonology  or  pho- 
netics is,  literally,  the  science  of  sound,  that  is,  the 
science  of  the  mutations  and  transformations  of  conso- 
nants and  vowels,  in  passing  from  one  language  to  an- 
other.    In  Sanskrit,  words  merely  joined  together  in 


THE    SCIENCE    OF   ETYMOLOGY.  313 

simple  sequence  have  an  influence  upon  each  other, 
such  as  to  cause  great  euphonic  mutations  of  their  con- 
sonantal elements.  This  style  of  changes  is  called 
Sandhi  (conjunction) ;  and  by  its  laws  the  juxtaposi- 
tion of  consonants  of  different  orders,  is  forbidden ; 
while  the  law^s  of  composition  themselves,  whether  in 
respect  to  the  inward  or  outward  blending  of  the  ele- 
ments which  are  coinbined  are  called  samasa  (coalition). 
Bopp  was  the  first  to  exhibit  a  wide  array  of  facts  upon  the 
subject  of  comparative  phonology,  which,  however,  being 
so  intent  on  ends  lying  farther  beyond,  he  did  not  bind 
into  any  system  or  science.  It  was  Jacob  Grimm,  as 
splendid  a  scholar  as  any  country  or  age  has  ever  pro- 
duced, who  first,  by  a  large  and  wonderful  induction  of 
kindi^ed  forms  in  Sanskrit,  Greek  and  Latin,  Gothic 
and  High  German,  developed  the  law  of  actual  corre- 
spondences in  these  languages,  since  called  Grimm's 
law ;  according  to  which,  a  given  letter  in  one  of  them 
is  regularly  transformed  into  a  given  letter  in  each 
of  the  others.  Succeeding  investigators  in  other  lan- 
guages, as  the  Celtic,  Slavonic,  Zend,  and  old  Persian, 
have  lengthened  out  the  scale  of  comparison  into  them, 
and  established  a  general  scientific  schedule  of  mutual 
equivalents,  throughout  the  whole  range  of  the  Indo- 
Em'opean  languages.  Going  forth  to  new  researches, 
with  such  a  scale  of  phonetic  correspondences,  not  made 
of  artificial  materials,  but  found  imbedded  in  these  lan- 
guages themselves  like  the  diatonic  scale  in  the  very 


314  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

organs  of  the  voice,  philologists  have  been  able,  not 
only  to  verify  abundantly,  over  and  over  again,  the 
truth  of  the  scale  itself,  but  also  by  its  aid  to  extend 
the  area  of  their  discoveries  in  every  direction.  Like 
the  natural  sciences,  the  science  of  philology  is  in  a 
state  of  constant  and  rapid  growth.  It  has  already 
mammoth  proportions,  and  yet  what  it  is  to  be  is  but 
partially  shadowed  forth,  in  what  it'  now  is. 

Comparative  phonology  is  therefore  the  science  of 
the  transformations,  substitutions  and  correspondences 
of  sounds,  in  different  languages ;  a  science  which  had 
lain  concealed  in  these  languages  for  thousands  of 
years,  like  a  bird  in  a  brake,  which  no  foot  had  ever 
entered  before  :  a  beautiful  many-voiced  bird,  now  fly- 
ing abroad  everywhere,  before  the  eyes  of  its  admirers, 
in  the  horizon  of  letters. 

The  less  a  language  has  departed  from  its  archaic 
forms,  so  much  the  more  easily  and  certainly  can  the 
internal  affiliations  of  its  Avords,  one  with  another,  be 
traced.  In  the  progress  of  ages,  even  in  the  same  lan- 
guage, and  much  more  as  words  traverse  the  domain 
of  different  latitudes  and  languages,  do  great  changes 
in  their  primitive  radical  form  occur.  Eor,  as  the  same 
words  are  put  to  different  uses  in  the  mouths  of  men, 
having  different  wants,  experiences,  and  developments, 
even  in  the  same  age,  and  among  the  same  people,  and 
imder  the  same  culture  ;  so,  much  more,  do  the  shapes 
and  sounds  of  words  run  tlu-ough  a  wide  range  of  vari- 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  315 

aliens,  amid  all  the  diversities  of  climate,  employment, 
and  character  experienced  over  wide  and  varying  tracts 
of  the  earth.  The  influence  of  climate  on  national 
physiognomy,  statm'c,  complexion,  vigor,  and  every 
personal  characteristic,  is  very  apparent  and  has  received 
formal  recognition  in  history,  geography  and  the  nat- 
ural history  of  man  ;  but  its  influence  on  the  organs  of 
speech,  so  as  to  make  certain  sounds  diflicult  to  one 
race  or  tribe,  that  to  other  races  in  other  climates  are 
easy  and  natural,  has  been  little  appreciated  or  consid- 
ered. As  the  elements  of  man's  primitive  language 
have  come  in  contact  with  all  these  various  currents  of 
influence  in  different  nations  and  epochs,  they  have 
undergone  great  changes,  in  every  direction.  In  the 
modern  Romanic  languages,  the  Spanish,  Italian,  and 
French  particularly,  the  greatness  of  these  changes  in 
forms,  once  fixed  in  the  Latin  as  if  having  a  constitu- 
tion of  iron,  is  strikingly  apparent  within  a  period 
covered  by  the  recent  nlemory  of  men.  No  languages 
diff^er  more  in  their  phonetic  elements  from  each  other 
than  these,  although  being  of  one  immediate  common 
origin. 

By  the  careful  analytic  study  of  their  variations,  as 
also  by  that  of  the  agreements  and  differences  of  the 
several  dialects  of  Greece,  one,  who  is  just  beginning  to 
have  some  insight  into  just  phonetic  solutions  of  the 
problems  of  comparative  etymology,  may  be  greatly 


316 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 


enlightened  and  aided."*'  In  them,  accordingly,  as 
geologists  can  often  witness  in  changes  now  going  on 
in  the  world  the  true  energy,  direction,  and  mode  of 
ancient  agencies ;  we  can  see  the  real  philosophy  ex- 
emplified in  actual  view,  of  the  various  phonetic  devel- 
opments of  the  ancient  languages. 

When  Cadmus  brought  the  Phoenician  alphabet  of 
sixteen  letters  to  Greece,  he  found  some  sounds  pre- 
vailing there  which  his  syllabarium  did  not  contain,  as 
the  aspirates  d-,  cp, ;/,  the  double  consonants  '^,  '^,  yj, 
and  the  long  vowels  rj  and  co.  The  digamma  F,  which 
was  at  first  used  as  the  equivalent  of  the  Phoenician 
Van,  was,  in  the  Hellenic  period,  entirely  dropped  from 

*  The  different  forms  of  many  of  the  same  Christian  names,  and  the 
different  pronunciation  of  the  same  form  to  the  ej^e,  in  several  of  the 
modern  languages,  illustrate  well  the  gi'eatness  of  phonetic  changes  in 
recent  times.  Remember  that  J  is  pronounced  in  Spanish  as  H  and  in 
German  as  Y. 


Greek  or  Latin.       Italian. 
'Ukui^os  Giacomo 


'ItiiawTj; 

Gulielmus 


Carolus 

Edvardus 
Joseplms 


Giovanni 
Giovanna 

Gulielmo 

Carlo 

Carlotta 

Cai-olina 

Odoardo 
Giuseppe 


Spanish. 

lago  and 

Santiago 
(St.  James) 


Juan 

Juana 

Guillermo 

Carlos 

Carlota 

Carolina 

Eduardo 
Jose 


French.         German. 


Jacques       Jacob 


Jean 
Jeanne 


rHans 

■}  Hannclien 
(Jobs 


lanna 

Guillaume  Wilbebn 

Cbarles  Karl 

Charlotte  Cbarlotfe 

Carolina  Karolina 

Edouard  Eduard 

Joseph  Joseph 


English. 

Jacobus 

Jacob 

James 

Jack 

John 
Jane 
Joanna 

William 

Carlos 
Charles 
Cbarlotto 
1^  Caroline 

Edward 

Joseph 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  317 

the   Greek  language,  as  not  euplionioiis  to  the  ear ; 
while -in  the  Latin  it  was  retained,  in  the  letter  v,  Avith 
much  favor.     The  breathing  h  was  a  great  favorite  in 
Greece,  and  often  substituted  for  an  original  s  ;  while 
in  Rome,  contrarily,  h  was  little  and  s'"''  was  much 
fancied.      In   German,  s   is   disliked   in  its  common 
hissing  sound,  and  accordingly  is  changed  to  z  between 
two  vowels  in  pronunciation,  and  in  orthography  it  is 
often  softened,  by  adding  an  aspirate,  into  sch.     The 
guttural  ch  of  that  language,  and  of  the  Greek,  Scotch, 
and  Irish  languages,  is  rejected  by  us  and  the  Prench ; 
while  both  the  Latin  and  the   French  reject  our  w, 
and  we  are  entirely  destitute  of  the  sweet  soft  u  sound, 
found  in  French,  German,  and  Greek.     So,  the  Lithu- 
"anians  have  no  aspirates.     The  letter  r  has  a  roll  in  it, 
as  used  by  some  nations,  which  is  almost  drumlike, 
compared  with  its  liquid  and  indeed  almost  unmeaning 
pronunciation  in  English.     Some  races,  like  the  Poles, 
delight  in  sibilants  ;  others,  like  the  Germans,  in  gut- 
tm'als ;  some,  like  the  Greeks,  in  aspirates ;  some,  like 
the  French  and  Portuguese,  in  nasals  ;  and  others,  like 
the  Italians  and  the  Servians,  in  vowels  and  liquids. 
How  differently  is  also  the  same  letter  pronounced  in 
different  languages.     Our  j   is  in  German  y  and  in 

*  The  same  foct  characterizes  the  Enghsh  in  that  class  of  words 
which  we  call  Latin-English ;  while  in  French,  though  often  occurring 
to  the  eye,  it  is  generally  rejected  at  the  end  of  words  and  syllables  in 
pronunciation,  and  often  thrown  entirely  out  of  view,  as  is  indicated 
by  the  circumflex  accent  in  such  a  case. 


318 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 


Spanish  h.     Our  v  is  the  German  f  and  our  w  their  v ; 
ch  is  pronounced  very  differently  by  different  nations. 

Many  correspondences  of  words,  therefore,  which  a 
classical  novice  would  reject  at  once,  as  not  meeting  the 
demands  of  his  eye  or  his  ear,  are  yet  beautifully  certi- 
fied to  be  true  by  the  wonder-working  power  of  pho- 


Sanskrit. 
janu,  the  knee* 

vinsati,  twenty 

s'atam,  a  hundred 

yuj,  to  hind 
yuga,  a  pair 

dvar,  a  door 

asvas,  a  horse 


hard,  hrid,  and 
hridaya,  the  heart 

svan,  a  dogf 
gen.  SunOS 

pliivaya,  to  wash 

mahat,  great,  for 
maghat 


mahiyas,  greater 
ashtau,  eight 


Greek. 


'fOVV 


\ev  Karop 

\  C^y6v 

dvpa 

'Iwiro^,  jEolic 
'Ikko? 

(kvp 

■<  and 
(_Kap5la 


{   KVOIV  ) 

I  gen.  Kvvos  ) 


Aoveiv 
"(fern.  fxfyd\Tf] 


fj.€'l(wv 
OXTW 


Latin. 
(  genu 
I  geniculum 

1        . 

y  viijinti 


[■  centum 

jungere 
jugum 

j  foris 

I  foras,  out  of  doors 


equus 
equestris 


cor(d) 


lavare 

["  magnus 
!  m actus 
[  magis 
,  maoister 


Italian. 
ginocchio 

venti 


cento 

giungere] 
giogo      j 

fuora 


equestre 
fcuore 
(^coraggio 

cane 

lavare 
masno 


major 
octo 


maggiore 
otto 


*  These   correspondences  are   selected   from   a   list   of  some  five 
thousand  or  more  prepared  with  care  by  the  author,  in  manuscript, 
t  Irish  cu. 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 


319 


iiology :  the  cliarm  of  the  discovery  being  sometimes 
found  in  one  language  on  an  extended  scale  of  com- 
parison, and  sometimes  in  another.  It  will  interest 
the  reader  to  examine  the  following  brief  schedule  of  a 
fc"^  correspondences,*  such  as  are  established  by  it,  in 
great  numbers,  to  be  true. 


Spanish. 

French. 

German. 

English. 

hinojo 

genou 

knie 

knee 

veinte 

vingt 

zwanzig 

twenty 

cent 

cent 

(lit.  a  hundredth) 

yugo 

j  joindre 

[joch 

join 
yoke 

fuera 

hors 

thiir 

door 

ecuestre 

ecuyer 

(equestri 
(e-squire 

in 

corazou 

'coeur 
courage 

hertz 

'heart 
core 
cordial 
courage 

chien 

hund 

hound 
canine 

lavar 

laver 

\ laben  ? 
1  lauen 

lave 

magno 

maint 

'  manch 
michel 

'  raickle 

mas 

maLs 

-  macht 

miglit 

maestro 

maitre 

mehr 

more 

^  meister 

master 

mister 

major 

I 

mayor 

maii-e 

meier 

^  mayor 

s 

ocho 

huit 

acht 

eight 

*  Even  through  the  French,  as  any  one  may  see,  English  and 
Latin  words  that,  placed  together,  have  little  if  any  resemblance  to 
each  other,  are  yet  found  to  be  in  origin  and  sense  the  same. 


320 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 


Sanskrit, 
dantas,  a  tooth 

vusas,  and 
vaisas,  a  house 

akshas,  the  eye 

panchan,  five  * 


Greek. 

Latin. 

uSovs 

)  dens 

gen.  uSouTOi 

^ 

oIkos  for 
Fo7kos 

V  vicus 

UKOS 

oculus 

ireVre 

quinque 

Italian, 
dents 


VICO 

occhio 
cinque 


pra 


TpO 


pro 


tvam,  thou 


chatur,  and 
chatvaras,  four 


tti 


tu 


[•  Te'( 


craapes 


/"quatuor 
< quadra 
(quartus 


Latin. 

bellus,  beautiful,  fine 

bonus 

cadere,  to  fall,  part,  cadens 

caput,  the  head 

captivus  a  captive 

co-operire 

collocare 
computare 
crispus,  wrinkled 

debere,  to  owe 

decipere,  to  deceive 

dies 
diurnus 


domina 


fquattro 
J  quadro 
j  quarto 
l^quadrone 


French, 
j  beau 
\ beaute 

jbon 
|bonte 

chance 

^chef 
I achever 

chetif 

couvrir 

coucher 
compter 
crepe 

devoir,  part,  du 

duper (a) 


h 


jour 


jdame 

\  demoiselle 


*  Lithuanian  penki. 
(a)  So  de  le  becomes  du  and  duccre,  duire,  to 


English. 

>  beauty- 
boon 
bounty 

chance 

chief 
achieve 

caitiff 

S cover 
(cope 

couch 

count 

crape 

C  devoirs 

<due 

(duty 

dupe 

{journal 
journey 
adjouni 
journeyman 

f  dame 

<dam 
(  damsel 

suit. 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 


321 


Spanish. 

French. 

German. 

English. 

diente 

dent 

zabn 

tooth 

'' — wich 
\-illa 

villa 

ville 

J 

— ville 
village 

ojo 

ceil,  pi.  yeux 

auge 

eye 

cinco 

cinq 

fiinf  * 

five 
'fore 

por 

pour 

( vor 
■  fiir 

be/ore 
for 
forehead 

tu 

tu 

du 

thou 
''quart 

cuatro 

qnatre 

quart 

quarter 

esquadra 

escadre 

quartier 

quadroon 
square 

esquadron 

escadron 

squadron 

Latin. 

French. 

English. 

{ nuire 

nocere 

noxa 

<  nuisance 
(  noise 

nuisance 
noise 

pagus 

pays 
paysan 

pagan 

paganus 

peasant 

. 

pip 

pipire  to  pipe, 

to 

peep, 

\  pigeon 

peep 

pipio  (n)  a  young  piping  bird 

pipe 

- 

pigeon 

sedere,  to  sit 

sieger                  -^ 

siege 
besiege 

senior,  elder 

sieur 

sir 

silva 

•  sauvage 

silvaticus 

savage 

solidus 

\  sold                      \ 
\  sold  at                  J 

solder 

soda 

soldier 

solidum 

tegula,  a  tile 

tuile 

tile 

vesper,  the  evening 

ouest  (a) 

west 

vision 
view 

Cvoir 

voyage 

yidere 

<  part,  vu 
(  voyager 

surt;ey 
— vide 
— vise 

*  Gothic  fimf.                 I 

visit 

(a)  Cf.  Swedish  vester. 

322 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 


Sanskrit, 
kas,  who 

svapnas,  a  dream 
upari,  above 


Greek. 


{  ^ollC  KIS 


VTTtp 


Latin, 
fquis 
J  quisque 
j  quisque-unus 
[_  aliquis-unus 


Italian, 
che,  and 
chi 
ciascuno 

alcuno 


sorantis  (for  sopnus) 
somnium  sognio 

sognare 


super 


sur 


bhrajj,  to  fry 
hyas,  yesterday 
hansas,  a  goose 

garban,  an  enclosure 

chut,  to  pour  forth 
srat,  credit 


(ppvynv 
XopTOi 


J  fut.  ;)(;eucreij' 
1^  poured  forth 


Xpau  to  loan 
or  lend 


frigere 

j  heri,  for  hesi 
[  hesternus 

ganta 

anser  (for  hanser) 

hortos 
cohors 


gutta,  a  drop 


coorte 
giardino 


goccia 


C         credere 

•<;  (=srat  +  dit  Sansk.  J- credere 

(      verb,  to  give) 


2.  Comparative  lexicography. 

The  component  parts  of  lexicography  are  various, 
such  as  etymology,  exegesis,  synonymes,  the  statistics  of 
words,  and  dialectic  peculiarities.  The  exegetical  ele- 
ment, which  concerns  itself  with  the  meanings  of 
words,  is  indeed  the  principal  element  of  lexicography, 
both  in  respect  to  the  amount  of  space  that  it  must 
necessarily  occupy,  and  in  respect  to  the  supply  which 
it  affords  for  the  wants  of  the  greatest  number  who  use 
a  dictionary.  But  in  what  close  connection  with  it 
stands  the  element  of  etymology  !     It  gives  a  pictorial 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 


323 


SpaniBh. 
que 

quien 
aljruno 


sobre 

ayer 

ganso 

'  liuerto 
' jardia 


gota 
grotera 


French. 

chaque 
chacuii 


sommeil 
sontjer 


frire 
hier 

jars 

•    cour 
jardin 

goutte 


German, 
wer 


English. 
who 


somnific 


(iiber 
(ober 


gestem 

gans  j  gander 

(  goose 

garten  *  (  garden 

•<  court 
(  cohort 

giessen  fgush 

guss  I  gl^st 

vergessen,  to  -l^  t'orget 

I  pour  away  |  gutter 

[geist  [^  ghost 

j  credit 
/  creed 


charm  to  the  dictionary,  and  adds  as  much  zest  to  the 
details  of  the  lexicon  as  experiments  in  chemistry  would 
to  a  collection  of  chemicals.  And  as  the  true  etymology 
of  a  word  establishes  its  original  meaning,  from  which 
all  its  other  meanings  ramify,  the  etymological  element 
forms  the  basis  on  which  the  exegetical  element  must 
logically  rest.  Any  attempt,  therefore,  to  separate  it 
from  lexicography  is  unnatural  and  absurd. 

No  lexicography  is  of  any  adequate  form  or  dimen- 
sions, that  is  not  comparative.    Words  hang  in  clusters ; 
*  Gothic  gards. 


324  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

and,  as  Avell  might  one  attempt  to  show  the  strength 
or  beauty  of  a  vine,  by  single  grapes  growing  upon  it, 
as  to  exhibit  the  scope  or  the  charms  of  lexicography 
in  separate,  disconnected  words. 

AVonders  have  been  accomplished  during  the  past 
twenty -five  years,  in  gathering  together  large  collections 
of  materials  for  a  true  lexicography,  in  each  one  of  the 
Indo-European  languages  ;  and  the  precious  pile  is 
growing  larger  and  larger  every  day.  And,  as  in 
ancient  Egypt  multitudes  were  busy  in  various  parts  of 
the  land,  for  many  years,  in  hewing  out  and  transport- 
ing  the  blocks  of  stone  which  were  to  form  their  mighty 
pyramids ;  so  now,  in  different  lands,  are  many  hands 
at  work  in  many  mines  to  quarry  and  prepare  the 
materials,  which  shall  seiTC  to  complete  and  to  beautify 
the  vast  and  splendid  structure  of  comparative  philology. 
The  results  already  obtained  lie  scattered  through  many 
books,  in  diverse  forms  and  connections.  The  lexicog- 
raphers of  each  language  have  as  open  a  field  for  their 
researches,  and  as  unlimited  opportunities  for  pursuing 
them,  as  geologists  in  every  country  have  for  theirs. 
Like  the  elements  of  nature,  the  benefits  of  all  such 
discoveries  are  open  to  all,  and  may  be  used  without 
stint  or  damage  by  all.  The  students  of  another  age, 
standing  under  the  scholarship  of  the  future,  rising  over 
them  in  its  colossal  proportions  and  its  temple-like 
beauty,  will  behold  a  field  of  research  and  pleasure 
spreading  out  before  them  in  classical  study,  compared 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  325 

with  which  ours,  in  its  best  condition,  will  seem  but  an 
almost  barren  waste. 

3.  Comparative  grammar. 

It  is  common  to  limit  the  application  of  etymology 
to  lexicography,  and  in  its  narrow  sense  this  is  right ; 
but,  on  a  broad  vieAV,  comparative  grammar  also  must 
be  included,  as  derived  forms  are  almost  all  of  them, 
those  at  least  of  a  simple  uncomposite  structure,  of  a 
grammatical  origin. 

One  of  the  chief  peculiarities  of  the  new  philology 
is,  that  it  rests  the  comparison  of  languages  so  much 
on  their  grammatical  correspondences.  Not  only  the 
forms  of  declension  and  conjugation  are  found,  under 
the  lens  of  true  analytic  and  phonological  investigation, 
to  be  identical  in  all  the  Indo-European  languages,  but 
also  all  the  various  parts  of  speech  down  to  the  merest 
particles  of  these  languages,  and  their  very  prefixes, 
suffixes  and  terminations.  A  given  radical  may  be 
selected,  in  both  its  simple  and  its  composite  forms,  and 
its  nominal,  adjective,  adverbial  and  verbal  derivatives 
may  be  compared  in  difierent  languages,  form  with 
form  and  kind  with  kind ;  and  everywhere,  both  gen- 
erally and  particularly,  in  great  things  and  little,  the 
most  intimate  union  and  communion  will  be  found  to 
exist  between  them. 

Under  the  light  of  comparative  grammar,  the  lexi- 
cographer's sense  of  the  common  origin  and  unity  of 
our  different  languages,  is  heightened  to  perfect  abso- 
22 


326  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

luteness.  He  feels  the  self-reliance  of  complete  vision. 
Our  different  languages,  lie  sees,  are  but  so  many  dif- 
ferent dresses  of  the  same  essential,  radical  word,  like 
the  figures  with  which  children  amuse  themselves,  made 
to  shp  in  and  out  of  a  dozen  various  styles  of  dress, 
with  such  ever  changing  effect  that  the  same  theme 
may  be  taken  and  robed  in  the  flexion-forms  of  each 
several  language,  and  transformed  at  will  into  Sanskrit, 
Greek,  Latin,  Gothic  or  Slavonic. 

It  may  be  well  to  detail  some  of  the  criteria  by 
which  the  relative  antiquity  of  different  languages,  and 
so  of  different  words,  may  be  determined. 

(1)  In  reference  to  their  phonetic  constitution  :  the 
relative  prevalence  of  the  three  original  vowels,  a,  i,  u, 
in  their  forms  generally,  and  also  their  relative  preser- 
vation of  their  original  unmutilated  and  unmodified 
themes,  as  ascertained  by  careful  analysis  and  the  law^s 
of  analogy,  both  in  the  same  language  and  also  in  other 
languages  viewed  in  connection  with  it.  These  facts, 
an  eye  in  the  habit  of  tracing  correspondences  scien- 
tifically comes  to  have  a  trained  sense  for  perceiving  ; 
as,  in  works  of  taste  or  matters  of  composition,  a  prac- 
tised mind  possesses,  in  its  own  cultivated  judgment,  a 
touchstone  for  discriminating  at  once  the  true  from  the 
false. 

(2)  In  reference  to  their  syllabication  :  the  simpler 
and  closer  the  consonantal  drapery  of  each  separate 
vow^el,  the  older,  as  a  general  fact,  is  the  family  of 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  327 

languages.  In  other  words  :  the  younger  sisters  of 
the  great  Indo-European  family  are  much  fonder  of 
consonantal  ornamentation,  than  were  the  ehler ;  as  is 
quite  manifest  in  the  Gothic  and  Slavic  languages, 
compared  with  the  Sanskrit  and  Gracco-Italic  ;  and  in 
the  later,  compared  with  the  earlier  dialects  of  the 
Greek  itself.  Such  variations  originate  in  different 
climatic  influences,  different  occupations,  and  different 
degrees  of  intellectual  cultui'e.  In  the  history  of  each 
separate  family  of  languages  by  itself,  the  tendency  is 
quite  regular  in  derived  branches  to  greater  simplicity 
of  consonantal  structure,  especially  in  terminal  syllables. 

(3)  In  reference  to  roots  :  the  simpler  they  are  in 
vocal  substance,  and  the  more  distinct  and  fuU  their 
own  individual  character,  the  nearer  are  they  to  their 
primal  state. 

(4)  In  reference  to  word-forms  generally  :  the  more 
distinct  the  analytic  elements  of  their  structui^e :  the 
less  of  mere  arbitrary  symbolism,  and  the  more  of  clear 
open  significance  that  they  possess,  the  older  is  the 
form ;  and,  where  such  forms  aboimd,  the  older  is  the 
language.  Symbols  early  part  with  all  their  inward 
life  and  heat.  Time  rapidly  formalizes,  stereotypes  and 
petrifies,  not  only  the  outward  institutions,  but  even 
the  hereditary  ideas  of  men. 

II.  The  principles  that  prevail  in  respect  to  the 
specific  etymology  of  any  individual  language,  under 
the  influence  of  comparative  etymology. 


328  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

They  are  these : 

1.  The  originals  of  words  in  the  given  language, 
and  their  meaning,  must  be  furnished,  whether  in  the 
language  or  out  of  it. 

The  radical  element,  stem,  theme  or  base,  as  it  is 
variously  called,  should  be  set  forth  distinctly  by  itself, 
and  in  compound  forms  each  component  part  should 
be  separately  exhibited.  The  stem  contains  all  that 
belongs  to  the  word,  as  such.  Every  thing  else  con- 
nected with  it  is  but  some  incidental  affection,  and 
belongs  to  the  department  of  the  pathology  of  words. 

2.  Comparative  forms  in  other  kindred  languages 
must  be  given,  serving  to  illustrate  more  fully  its  place 
in  the  great  family  to  which  it  belongs. 

In  all  lexicography,  whether  vernacular  or  classical, 
the  histoiy  of  each  word  should,  so  far  as  possible,  be 
exhibited  on  the  following  scale  of  equivalents,  and  in 
the  order  here  stated  :  the  Sanskrit,  Zend,  and  Old 
Persian,  Celtic,  Latin,  Greek,  Lettic,  Gothic,  and  Sla- 
vonic* In  the  etymology  of  the  modem  languages, 
full  parallelisms  also  should  be  run  between  the  differ- 
ent Romanic  tongues,  and  in  the  order,  for  etymological 
value,  of  the  Itahan,  Wallachian,  Spanish,  Portuguese, 
Prench,  and  English.  A  line  or  two  of  such  etymo- 
logical equivalents,  standing  side  by  side  in  mute  array 
with  any  word,  so  significant  are  these  symbols  while 

*  The  order,  in  which  they  are  here  placed,  is  that  determined  by 
their  relative  historical  and  geographical  position  combined. 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  329 

brief  like  those  of  chemistry,  contains  in  itself  a  volume 
of  history  to  the  philologist.  It  is  only  also,  by  the 
comparisons  of  words  in  different  languages,  that  the 
normal  or  abnormal  peculiarities  of  any  given  language 
can  become  at  all  apparent. 

In  introductory  chapters,  phonetic  principles  should 
be  fully  discussed  and  illustrated,  by  which  the  various 
changes  of  words  derived  from  the  same  root  may  be 
comprehended  and  appreciated. 

3.  Derived  forms  in  the  same  language  must  be 
carefully  presented. 

Even  derived  forms  have,  most  of  them,  analo- 
gies in  the  various  Indo-European  languages ;  and  a 
thorough,  comprehensive  system  of  etymology  and  lexi- 
cography demands  that  such  equivalents  should  also  be 
exhibited.  In  all  those  derivatives,  of  whatever  class 
or  style,  in  each  language,  which  have  no  analogies  in 
other  languages,  we  can  best  discover  the  distinctive 
genius  of  the  specific  language  in  which  they  occur ; 
and  these  are  of  great  value  to  us,  by  way  of  revealing 
the  inward  principles  to  our  view  of  its  own  separate 
home  growth.  They  are  its  peculiar  characteristics 
and  the  marks  of  its  own  individuality. 

4.  The  whole  interior  logical  etymology  of  each 
language,  in  its  separate  words,  must  be  carefully 
traced  by  the  lexicographer  himself,  and  as  cai'efully 
set  forth  in  full  detail. 

The  sphere  of  secondary  and  derived  meanings  is 


330  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

one  ill  Avhicli  a  deep-searching  mind  can  work  with 
great  effect :  employing  all  its  powers  of  comparison, 
discrimination,  judgment,  reasoning,  memory,  invention 
and  research,  in  the  fidlest  possible  manner.  Words 
are  even  more  arborescent  in  the  variations  of  their  sense 
than  of  their  form ;  rising  up  from  their  elementary 
signification  into  every  possible  modification  of  it,  by 
light  and  shade,  in  largeness  and  littleness  and  strength 
and  beauty,  of  which  it  is  susceptible.  The  pleasure 
of  tracing  them  is  like  that  of  an  anatomist  in  dissecting 
and  exhibiting  the  delicate  net-work  of  nerves  and  veins 
and  vessels  in  the  body,  or  of  a  mechanician  in  compre- 
hending and  explaining  the  mysteries  enfolded  in  a 
telescope  or  a  steam  engine,  or  of  an  amateur  of  nature, 
who  is  able  to  see  and  to  say  what  effect  each  part  and 
point  of  a  charming  landscape  contributes  to  the  varied 
whole.  Greatness,  as  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  best 
shows  itself  in  little  things  :  greatness  of  character, 
greatness  of  intellect,  whether  in  forecast  or  in  the 
adaptation  of  means  to  ends  in  view,  and  greatness  of 
scholarship.  As  our  dictionaries  are  now  used  by  both 
scholars  and  teachers,  they  are  made  to  answer  merely 
the  purposes  of  a  commentary.  Only  the  specific 
meaning  of  the  word  in  the  given  connection  is  sought 
for;  and  that  is  determined,  not  by  any  process  of 
judgment  going  forth  from  the  radical  etymological 
sense  of  the  word,  through  its  various  ramifications,  to 
the  proper  point  of  destination,  but  by  merely  searching 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  331 

after  the  quotation  of  the  passage  in  which  it  occurs, 
or  of  a  kindred  one  under  some  one  of  its  senses  ;  and, 
if  such  a  quotation  be  found,  its  authority  is  commonly 
held  to  be  as  conclusive,  as  would  be  that  of  an  infal- 
lible fiat.  Whether  the  day  will  ever  come,  in  these 
modern  times  of  haste,  in  which  classical  sclfcol-lexicons 
shall  be  prepared,  on  the  plan  of  a  thorough  philological 
and  logical  development  of  each  word,  from  its  ultimate 
root  to  its  topmost  branch,  in  both  its  form  and  sense, 
without  note  or  comment ;  and  in  which  the  student 
shall  be  required  to  select  his  own  meaning  in  each 
case  without  aid,  and  to  be  able  to  give  his  reason  out 
of  the  very  word  itself  as  well  as  out  of  the  context,  for 
so  rendering  it :  is  quite  uncertain,  if  not  altogether 
improbable.  But  if  ever  the  time  comes,  when  such 
facilities  are  provided  and  used  with  enthusiasm  and 
perseverance,  there  will  be  a  body  and  substance  in  the 
style  of  mental  discipline  secured,  far  beyond  any  thing 
yet  obtained  in  the  whole  round  of  scholastic  apph- 
ances. 

IV.  The  determinative  principles  and  tests  of  ety- 
mology. 

By  these  are  meant  certain  fixed  laws  of  evidence 
and  judgment,  by  which  any  supposed  or  alleged  focts 
are  to  be  ruled  in  or  out  of  this  science,  which  is,  as 
has  been  said,  a  strictly  inductive  science.  The  rela- 
tions of  cause  and  effect,  therefore,  or  of  antecedence 
and  sequence,  are  to  be  traced  here  as  they  would  be 


332  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

on  any  other  field  of  investigation,  and  we  must  walk 
in  the  light  of  analogy. 

1.  The  determinative  principles  and  tests  of  com- 
parative etymology. 

2.  Those  pertaining  to  specific  etymology  in  any 
and  every  language. 

1.  Those  of  comparative  etymology  are  the  follow- 
ing: 

(1)  Correspondence  in  the  fundamental  base  or 
root.*  A  real  difference  of  base  is  of  course  destructive 
of  all  etymological  identity.  The  base  or  theme  of  a 
word  is  its  whole  substance  and  essence. 

(2)  Minute  mutual  resemblances,  through  a  wide 
range  of  derivatives,  and  in  all  the  details  of  prefix  and 
suffix  forms.  Each  new  correspondence  in  the  deriva- 
tives of  different  languages  adds  much  weight,  like  the 
argument  from  multiplied  undesigned  coincidences  in 
the  Bible,  in  favor  of  the  integrity  of  its  writers,  to  the 
force  of  that  probable  evidence  by  which,  in  this  science 
we  are  to  determine  all  its  facts  and  features. 

(3)  Euphonic  laws  of  definite,  ascertained  scope 
and  power. 

These  often  avail  to  overrule  and  overthrow  ah 
conclusions  derived  from  sight  or  sound,  for  or  against 

*  Rapp  says  tersely,  in  the  beginning  of  his  Comparative  Grammar : 
"  a  root  is  the  skeleton  of  a  word,  the  residuum  of  a  logical  operation, 
the  result  of  grammar,  but  not  its  genetic  origin,"  (p.  31),  and  again, 
"grammar  must  never  lose  from  view  that  logic  is  its  highest  and 
absolute  sovereign,"  p.  33. 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  333 

a  given  etymology.  They  are  laws  which  are  openly 
revealed  to  us  in  the  language  itself;  laws  which  it 
observed  in  its  own  constant  manifestation  and  growth, 
and  by  observing  preserved  as  such  in  its  own  keep- 
ing, for  its  own  sure  interpretation  forever. 
(4)  Certain  specific  axioms, 

(a)  One  fact  outweighs  any  and  all  theories  to  the 
contrary. 

(b)  No  theory  is  adequate  which  does  not  embrace 
and  explain  all  known  facts. 

(c)  Of  two  varying  theories  equally  supported  in 
other  respects,  that  should  always  have  the  preference 
which  is  the  most  simple. 

(d)  No  etymology  can  be  rightly  rejected  on  gen- 
eral principles  and  modes  of  reasoning,  for  adopting 
which  in  receiving  other  etymologies  one  would  be 
condemned.  One  may  be  as  much  of  an  empiric  in 
his  mode  of  rejecting  an  etymology,  as  he  could  possibly 
judge  another  to  be  in  receiving  it. 

2.  The  authoritative  principles  pertaining  to  spe- 
cific etymology  in  any  given  language. 

(1)  The  genius  of  the  language  itself. 

The  genius  of  a  language  in  respect  to  its  etymol- 
ogy is  determined  by  its  general  analogies,  as  discov- 
ered by  a  wide  and  thorough  comparison  of  its  deriva- 
tives and  secondary  forms,  just  as,  by  resemblances  of 
structure  and  cleavage  and  essential  characteristics, 
minerals  are  classified.     Each  language  has  a  spirit,  a 


334  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

mien  and  a  gait  of  its  own  ;  and,  as  we  know  a  man's 
handwriting  with  whom  we  are  famiUar,  or  liis  style  of 
composition,  so  as  to  recognise  them  readily  without 
his  name ;  so,  to  him  who  knows  a  language  as  his 
own,  under  the  motion  of  wdiose  thoughts  and  feelings 
its  words  move,  like  his  limbs,  as  if  a  part  of  his 
inward  self,  that  language  has  a  familiar,  cherished 
look  in  all  its  aspects.  The  true  etymologist  in  any 
language  does  not  stand  outside  of  it,  and  take  his 
observations  of  its  dimensions  and  of  its  structiure  as  a 
stranger  to  it,  wdth  ideals  and  formulas  of  criticism  and 
comparison  formed  out  of  its  atmosphere.  His  point 
of  view,  on  the  contrary,  is  within  the  bright  azure 
sphere  of  the  language  itself ;  where  he  looks  around 
upon  every  thing  beautiful  and  true,  with  a  deep,  glad 
home-sense,  in  sympathy  with  all  that  he  beholds. 
Possessed  of  such  feelings  and  standing  at  such  a  point 
of  observation,  a  true  scholarly  critic  wdll  soon  become 
able  to  determine  at  once,  by  a  sort  of  instinctive 
interior  sense,  the  real  or  counterfeit  value  of  many 
minor  and  yet  significant  points  of  etymology.  The 
place  thus  allow^ed  for  disciplined  philosophic  insight  is 
narrow  and  confined  ;  but  it  really  has  a  function  and 
a  sphere  for  its  exercise,  and  they  should  be  pointed 
out.  Perfect  scholarship  Avould  seem  when  at  work, 
both  to  him  employing  it  and  to  those  witnessing  its 
manifestations,  like  perfect  spontaneity  in  its  decisions. 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  335 

(2)  Simplicity  and  naturalness  of  derivation,  in 
respect  to  both  form  and  sense. 

Truth  is  always  simple  in  its  nature,  as  is  also  the 
mind  in  its  spirit  and  tastes  that  seeks  to  discover  and 
appropriate  it  to  itself.  And  every  science,  as  a  frag- 
ment of  the  great  orb  of  universal  truth,  is  simple 
always  in  its  elements  and  proportions. 

(3)  Archaic  forms,  having  a  determinate  influence. 
In  the  early  state  of  a  language,  its  original  forms 

are  least  impaired.  Connections  that  then  existed 
between  words  are  often  covered  up  afterwards,  by  the 
growth  of  centmies.  Thus,  in  the  light  obtained  in 
such  a  way,  we  find  that  bonus  in  Latin  was  originally 
duonus  (from  duo),  implying  in  its  very  origin,  as  all 
goodness  does  in  fact,  the  existence  of  two  parties,  the 
giver  and  receiver.*  So  bellum  was  at  first  duellum, 
as  also  bis  represents  dvis,  like  the  Greek  8tg  for  dJ^/g ; 
and  thus  bis  (for  dvis)  and  viginti  (for  dviginti)  twenty, 
stand  together  before  the  eye  even,  in  close  mutual 
connection  -.  facts  these,  which,  if  only  surmised  without 
such  evidence,  would  have  been  treated  with  ridicule. 

(4)  Double  forms. 

These  occur  in  Greek  abundantly  in  Homer.  There 
is  often  a  third  form  also  exhibited,  the  second  being 
in  such  a  case  medial  between  it  and  the  one  which 

The  creation  of  a  receptive  intelligent  universe,  was  a  neces- 
sity to  the  heart  of  God,  who  could  not  in  foot,  in  the  absence  of  any 
objects  of  His  goodness,  ever  exercise  that  goodness  itself. 


836  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

was  primitive,  as  in  Dor.  xcoqcc,  Ionic  xovqy],  Attic 
xoQt].  So  also  we  find  in  Homer  ocptXXco  for  6(pbH(o 
for  original  ocpiXico.  Compare  likewise  tEoI.  avco:; 
(from  Sansk.  usli  to  burn)  Dor.  dco^,  Ion.  iico;,  Attic 
k(oi,  the  morning  ;  with  which  also  compare  //A^o^- 
(from  same  root)  Homeric  r]bXco^,  Dor.  abXco^,  which 
original  form  was  probably  as  Cm^tius  suggests,  avObXio^. 
So  the  double  forms  of  the  A  &  O  declensions,  as 
tcXiOLccojv  and  xXiOlcov,  avif^QcoTioto  and  avdQCOTvou 
lay  clear  parallelisms  with  the  results  of  recent  Sanskrit 
research.  In  such  forms  also  as  juioytcu,  and  Attic  fj-ioyri 
for  Liioytoai,  and  ^oXiog,  and  TioXtioQ,  Attic  :ioXt(oi 
and  060;  (for  aaog),  Comp.  oaojrtQog,  and  both 
Homeric  and  Attic  ocog,  we  see  other  illustrations  of 
this  class  of  words.  Such  different  stages  in  forms  are 
as  interesting  to  a  philologist,  as  specimens  of  the 
influence  of  time  upon  language ;  as  to  the  geologist 
are  the  different  orders  of  rocks,  primary,  secondary, 
and  tertiary,  in  helping  him  to  determine  the  mode, 
and  the  length  of  time,  in  which  this  world  was  fitted 
up  for  its  present  inhabitants, 

(5)  Dialectic  changes  and  differences. 

The  Greek  is  the  only  specific  language  whose  dia- 
lects are  at  the  same  time  numerous,  and  each  in 
marked  advance  beyond  its  predecessor  ;  while  all  are 
mutually  illustrative,  in  the  fullest  and  strongest  philo- 
logical relations,  of  each  other. 

It  is  thus  quite  apparent,  that  a  thoroughly  accom- 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  337 

plished  etymologist  must  needs  be  a  man  of  very  com- 
prehensive learning  as  well  as  of  large  intellectual 
capacities ;  and  these  brought  under  the  power  of  long 
and  intense  discipline. 

The  supposition  or  dictum  of  an  ancient  himself,  as 
of  Cicero,  many  of  whose  etymologies  are  preserved  to 
us  in  his  essays,  or  of  Varro,  whom  Cicero  greatly 
admired,  has  no  authority  as  such  concerning  the  origin 
or  elements  of  a  word.  An  ancient  was  just  as  likely 
as  a  modern,  under  the  influence  of  fancy  or  haste,  to 
go  astray ;  and,  in  the  classical  age  of  Latin  or  Greek, 
an  author  was  as  far  removed  from  the  primas  rermn 
origines,  so  far  as  his  power  to  give  any  testimony 
respecting  them  is  concerned,  as  we  are.  His  opinion 
is  but  a  mere  opinion,  and  no  evidence.  Varro's  ety- 
mologies, which  are  not  so  simple  as  to  be  undeserving 
of  any  special  notice,  as  of  dux  from  duco,  are,  very 
many  of  them,  like  that  of  pater  from  patefacio ;  canis 
a  dog,  from  canere  (signa)  to  give  warning ;  and  vitis 
a  vine,  from  vinuni  wine  (itself  from  vis  strength). 
So  Priscian  derives  verbum  from  verberare  (sc.  aer)  and 
litera  (as  if  for  legitera)  from  lego. 

V.  Some  of  the  advantages  of  the  study  of  ety- 
mology. 

The  word  etymology  {sTVf.ioXoyia),  is  derived  from 
tTv^iog,  true  or  real,  and  loyoz,  speech.  The  Latin 
synonym,  veriloquimn ,  expresses  the  same  elementary 
idea.     So  that  a  person  is  etymologically  ignorant  of 


338  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

language,  who  does  not,  like  one  seeing  sands  of  gold 
through  a  limpid  stream,  behold  within  its  forms,  as  if 
transparent,  its  etymological  elements  and  treasures. 

Among  the  advantages  of  studying  etymology  may 
be  mentioned  the  following : 

1.  The  high  pleasm*e  derived  from  it. 

No  study  is  more  fascinating.  "  Diversions,"  the 
investigators  into  the  origin  of  words,  call  their  labors, 
and  etymology  itself  they  describe  as  "  fossil  poetry." 
It  is  indeed  this,  and  more.  It  is  fossil  poetry,  philosophy 
and  history  combined.  In  the  treasured  words  of  the 
past  the  very  spirits  of  elder  days  look  out  upon  us,  as 
from  so  many  crystalline  spheres,  with  friendly  recog- 
nition. We  see  in  them  the  light  of  their  eyes ;  we 
feel  in  them  the  warmth  of  their  hearts.  They  are 
relics,  they  are  tokens,  and  almost  break  into  life  again 
at  our  touch. 

The  etymologist  unites  in  himself  the  characteristics 
of  the  traveller,  roaming  through  strange  and  ftir-off 
climes  ;  the  philosopher,  prying  into  the  causes  and  se- 
quences of  things;  the  antiquary,  filling  his  cabinet 
with  ancient  curiosities  and  wonders ;  the  historio- 
grapher, gathering  up  the  records  of  by-gone  men  and 
ages ;  and  the  artist,  studying  the  beautiful  designs  in 
word-architecture,  furnished  him  by  various  nations 
and  especially  by  that  greatest  of  all  nations  in  all  forms 
of  art,  the  Greeks,  whose  language  is  the  most  perfect 
specimen  of  organism,  for  power  and  for  beauty,  to  be 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  339 

found  in  the  world  of  speech.  Shall  then  the  traveller, 
the  philosopher,  the  antiquary,  the  historian  and  the 
artist,  find  high  gratification,  each  in  his  exalted  em- 
ployment, and  not  he  who  unites  all  their  occupations 
in  one  and  all  their  pleasures  in  his  own  ? 

The  pursuit  of  knowledge  is  always  pleasant ;  and 
the  mind  engaged  in  it,  walks,  runs,  flies  in  its  course, 
as  if  born  for  any  and  every  element ;  every  limb  in- 
stinct with  motion,  and  every  nerve  vital  and  vivid  with 
its  impulse.  The  more  rich  the  landscape  is  in  details, 
and  the  more  infinite  its  fulness  before  the  ravished 
eye,  the  greater  the  pleasure  in  the  survey,  and  the 
greater  the  consciousness  of  power  in  being  able  to  ap- 
preciate and  interpret  such  a  wide  array  of  beauties  and 
wonders  unto  others. 

Every  language  is  polyhedral  in  its  structure,  and 
while  for  substance  it  is  all  of  the  same  material,  each 
side  of  it  has  a  difierent  face  and  different  adornments 
from  every  other.  He  therefore  who  walks  around  about 
the  whole  castellated  and  turreted  structure  of  the 
Latin,  scanning  thoroughly  all  its  own  inner  beauty  of 
height  and  breadth  and  multiform  composition,  and 
surveying,  without,  each  wondrous  side  of  the  varied 
whole,  its  Sanskrit  side  and  its  Greek,  Celtic,  Gothic 
and  Slavonic  sides,  one  after  the  other,  gratifies  that 
natural  love  of  curiosity,  which  is  so  strong  an  ini])ulse 
to  travel,  research  and  effort  in  other  things,  and  which 


340  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

nowhere  finds  a  purer  gratification,  than  in  the  realms 
of  science  and  of  letters. 

As  also  it  is  one  of  the  highest  exercises  of  the 
mind,  to  adapt  means  to  ends,  the  act  of  doing  which 
we  call  skill  in  matters  physical  and  intellectual,  and 
wisdom  in  those  which  are  moral ;  so  it  is  one  of  the 
highest  intellectual  pleasures  to  trace  adaptations,  con- 
nections, sequences  and  harmonies,  scientific  and  his- 
torical, and  to  find  ourselves  on  a  path  of  discovery  in 
which  they  are  perpetually  coming  into  view,  when  and 
where  we  least  expected  them.  It  is  specially  pleasant 
to  find  analogies,  mutually  explaining  objects  before  re- 
garded as  unrelated  and  isolated,  and  connecting  to- 
gether things  widely  separated  and  of  a  diverse  aspect 
from  each  other.  The  formation  of  comparisons  is  one 
of  the  chief  exercises  and  pleasures  of  the  imagination. 
It  is  in  this  employment,  that  the  poetic  faculty  in  our 
nature,  the  natural  fountain  of  youth  in  the  heart,  bursts 
forth  in  all  its  strength  of  life  and  joy.  So  much  indeed 
are  the  faculties  of  invention  and  comparison  stimulated 
into  action  in  this  study,  that  the  tendency  is  ever 
present,  to  fly  ofi"  from  the  centre  of  a  real  logical  sta- 
bility into  the  ideal  and  the  fanciful,  except  in  one  of 
thoroughly  scholastic  habits ;  which  indeed,  as  a  cen- 
tripetal force,  balancing  the  opposite  centrifugal  ten- 
dency, serve  to  keep  such  a  mind,  though  moving  on- 
ward with  delighted  energy,  yet  true  to  its  proper  orbit 
of  revolution. 


THE    SCIENCE    OF   ETYMOLOGY.  341 

2.  Its  great  promotion  of  the  higher  mental  dis- 
ciphne.  Human  language  is  the  highest  of  all  objective 
realms  of  art  among  men.  The  highest  absolute  realm 
of  art  on  earth,  as  in  heaven,  is  subjective ;  in  the  cul- 
ture and  perfection  of  character,  in  every  thing  lovely 
and  heroic,  manly  and  godly,  according  to  the  pure  and 
perfect  ideal  presented  to  us,  in  the  abstract,  in  the 
Bible,  and,  in  the  concrete,  in  the  beautiful  and  sub- 
lime life  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  Greeks  deemed  archi- 
tect m'e,  as  the  word  shows  in  its  very  etymology,  "  the 
principal  art "  of  life.  But  the  art  of  speech  transcends, 
in  all  its  uses  and  relations,  not  only  that  of  house- 
building, but  also  every  other  art  that  can  be  named 
among  all  the  outward  employments  of  men.  A  dead 
language  is  fuU  of  all  monumental  remembrances  of  the 
people  who  spoke  it.  Their  swords  and  their  shields 
are  in  it ;  their  faces  hang  pictured  on  its  walls ;  and 
their  very  voices  ring  still  through  its  recesses.  And  in  a 
Uving  language  you  may  see,  as  in  a  vast  panorama,  the 
whole  varied  busy  activity  and  experience  of  a  nation's 
present  condition.  Language  has  not  merely,  for  height, 
and  breadth,  and  organic  structm'e  as  the  dome  of 
thought,  all  the  sublime  capacities  of  architecture ;  or, 
for  severe  chiselled  dignity  of  form,  all  the  majesty  of 
sculpture ;  or,  for  wondrous  power  of  imagery,  all  the 
exquisite  beauty  of  painting;  or,  for  sweetness  and 
ravishment,  the  magic  charms  of  music ;  it  contains  the 
mysteries  and  energies  of  all  these  exalted  arts  in  one. 

23 


342  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

In  it  also,  as  a  garner,  are  gathered  together  all  the 
rich  harvests  of  human  genius,  from  every  field  which 
human  thought  or  effort  has  essayed  to  reap.  It  is  the 
archives  of  all  man's  history,  migratory,  civil,  political, 
statutory,  literary,  scientific,  experimental  and  personal. 
Surely  on  an  area  of  action  so  wide  and  so  varied,  there 
must  be  scope  enough  for  every  kind  of  mental  exer- 
cise and  inquiry ;  and  prizes,  of  every  possible  variety 
of  value,  must  await  the  grasp  of  him  who  earnestly 
seeks  for  them. 

And  in  no  way,  as  a  matter  of  general  experience 
and  of  general  testimony,  can  all  the  higher  faculties  of 
the  mind  be  so  well  trained  to  lofty,  vigorous,  sustained 
action,  as  by  the  study  of  language ;  its  analytic,  philo- 
sophic, artistic,  study.  Classical  discipline  is,  accord- 
ingly, the  palaestra  in  which,  throughout  Christendom, 
the  rising  generation  is  everywdiere  prepared,  and  for 
ages  has  been,  to  wrestle  manfully  with  the  difficulties 
of  after-life  in  whatever  profession  or  calling.  From 
Latin  and  Greek  fountains,  the  living  waters  have  been 
drawn,  from  which  the  intellectual  thirst  of  great  minds 
in  all  nations  has  been  slaked.  Those  ancient  lan- 
guages, so  often  called  dead,  have  ever  had  a  very  livin<T 
use.  But  if  the  mental  discipline  of  the  civilized  world 
has  been  secured  thus  far,  to  such  a  high  degree,  from 
the  very  imperfect  study  of  language  as  hitherto  pur- 
sued, how  much  more  would  be  obtained  by  a  deeper, 
broader,  truer  style  of  familiarization  with  its  structui'e 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  343 

and  spirit :  so  deep,  and  broad,  and  true  as  to  seem  to 
the  mind  swimming  buoyantly  in  its  depths,  to  be  its 
very  native  element.  By  the  study  of  etymology,  in 
particular,  habits  of  wide  research,  of  patient  compari- 
son, of  logical  deduction,  and  of  critical  review  are 
pre-eminently  cultivated:  all  among  the  highest  ele- 
ments of  mental  energy  and  success.  AVlio  can  speak 
too  strongly  of  their  necessity  and  value  ?  or,  of  that 
insight  into  the  living  beauty  of  language  which  makes 
its  words  seem,  whether  standing  quietly  on  the  shore 
of  our  own  thoughts,  or  coming  and  going  on  errands 
of  truth  and  love  to  others,  to  be  so  many  white-winged 
messengers,  radiant  themselves  with  the  light  that  they 
bear  before  them  ? 

And  as  the  student  finds  in  this  path  of  study  the 
sweet  perpetually  mingled  with  the  useful,  and,  like  one 
searching  for  gems  in  regions  where  they  abound,  ob- 
tains at  every  step  a  rich  reward  of  his  efforts,  he  feels 
perpetually  freshened  to  new  toil ;  and  each  new  effort 
prepares  the  desire  and  the  u'ay  for  a  greater.  So 
that  the  spirit  of  study,  instead  of  being  as  at  first  a 
matter  of  mere  conscientious  or  manly  resolve,  rises 
rapidly  into  enthusiasm,  spontaneity,  and  instinct.  For 
there  is  all .  the  excitement  in  such  a  style  of  classical 
study  of  pleasing  travel  and,  more,  of  earnest  scientific 
exploration  and  even  of  rare  adventure.  This,  it  may 
well  be  assumed,  is  the  only  world  in  which  mental 
effort  is  a  labor  and,  at  times,  a  weariness ;  and  the 


344  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

nearer  that  we  approach  the  point  of  making  real  toil 
at  the  same  time  real  joy,  the  nearer  do  we  bring 
earth  to  heaven  and  the  mortal  to  the  immortal. 

3.  Its  peculiar  value  in  preparing  the  mind  for  the 
work  of  communication  and  communion  with  other 
minds.  The  chief  end  of  knowledge  and  education  is 
never  personal.  Their  true  uses  are  not  to  be  found  in 
centralization  but  in  distribution  ;  in  participating  with 
others,  as  God  finds  his  infinite  joy  in  doing,  all  one's 
full  resom'ces.  The  greatest  possible  benefaction  to  all 
our  fellow-men :  this  is  the  true  end  and  aim  of  all 
mental  and  moral  cultm"e.  Language,  therefore,  as  the 
divinely-constructed  vehicle  for  communicating  thought 
and  feeling  between  human  beings,  deserves,  in  all  its 
forms  and  details,  the  most  complete  mastery.  Shut 
up  within  one's  self,  thought  stagnates  and  knowledge 
decays.  The  subjective  is  developed  by  the  objective ; 
and  the  objective  by  the  subjective.  The  creation  is  a 
great  duality.  Every  thing  exists  in  pairs :  males  and 
females,  vegetables  and  animals,  matter  and  spirit,  fire 
and  water,  land  and  ocean,  the  sky  and  sea,  light  and 
shade,  birth  and  death,  time  and  space,  substance  and 
'  shadow,  the  present  and  future,  the  world  without  and 
the  world  within,  the  finite  and  the  infitiite.  When 
man  most  addresses  himself,  yea,  rather,  most  abandons 
himself  to  all  that  is  without  him,  he  becomes  most  con- 
scious of  all  that  is  within  him ;  and,  when  he  enters 
into  the  pavilion  of  other  minds,  to  shed  the  fight  of 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY,  345 

his  love  upon  them,  or  to  draw  the  Hght  of  their  spirits 
into  his  own,  he  knows,  he  feels,  with  what  a  spark  of 
the  Divinity  his  nature  has  been  lighted  from  on  high. 
His  whole  inward  being  unfolds  at  once  its  native 
splendor  to  his  own  deeply-awakened  consciousness. 

The  genius  and  the  power  of  language  are  best 
comprehended,  as  its  words  are  contemplated,  not  so 
much  in  their  separate  individual  character,  or  in 
their  syntactical  combinations,  as  in  their  formative, 
derivative  and  mutually  correspondent  aspects.  The 
very  processes  in  which  they  originally  crystallized 
into  their  present  forms,  are  almost  enacted  over  again, 
in  the  laboratory  of  etymology.  Etymology  is,  indeed, 
the  chemistry  of  language.  But  not  only  is  the  gefnius 
of  language,  universal  language  or  word-architecture, 
best  comprehended  by  the  study  of  etymology ;  skill 
also  in  the  use  of  words,  so  as  to  be  able  to  employ 
them  with  beautiful  aptness  in  themselves,  and  with 
delicacy,  harmony  and  richness  of  effect  in  combina- 
tion one  with  the  other,  is  thus  acquired.  There  is  as 
wide  a  difference  in  the  use  of  words  by  different  writers, 
as  of  paints  by  poor  artists  and  great ;  and  as  wide  a 
difference  in  the  effect  upon  the  understanding  and 
the  sensibihties  of  their  readers.  And  so  also,  in  spoken 
words,  there  is  as  great  a  variety  of  utterance,  as  in  the 
whole  array  of  musical  instruments,  from  the  most  ob- 
scure nonsense  or  empty  bombast  or  wearisome  plati- 
tudes, up  to  the  deep,  pure  eloquence  of  a  heart  over- 


346  THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY. 

flowing  with  thought  and  love,  on  the  bosom  of  which 
every  hearer  floats  with  joy,  as  on  a  sea  of  hght  and 
rapture. 

And  he  who  masters  etymology,  and  to  whom 
words  take  on  again  their  original  aspects  of  life  and 
beauty,  will  become  conscious,  even  in  the  use  of  our 
language,  which  is  but  a  grand  composite  of  the  best 
parts  of  many  other  languages,  of  the  primeval  pleasure 
that  men  enjoyed  who  used  words  when  in  themselves 
they  were  fresh  and  new.  They  will  be  musical  to  his 
ears,  as  are  the  chimes  of  sweet  bells  when  heard  far 
off"  upon  the  sea,  to  those  who  themselves  founded 
them,  and  dissolved  their  hearts  in  song  with  the  melt- 
ing metal,  as  its  fiery  streams  ran  into  the  strong  mould. 
And  since  each  human  spirit  throws  its  own  hght  on 
all  smTounding  objects,  and  does  but  see  them  as  they 
are  reflected  in  it  to  its  eye,  a  heart,  that  finds  joy  in 
the  very  utterance  of  its  thoughts  and  feelings,  Avill  be 
sure,  like  one  whose  nature  revels  in  the  sweet  concords 
of  music,  to  carol  forth  perpetually  the  pent-up  melo- 
dies that  are  ever  sounding  to  his  inner  ear,  in  the 
voiceless  depths  of  his  own  being,  and  to  excite  in  other 
hearts,  while  doing  so,  the  same  rapture  that  burns 
with  divine  brightness  in  his  own.  Celestial  pleasures 
are  but  labors  of  dehght :  eflbrts  so  true,  so  high,  so 
joyous,  that  they  become  perpetual  pastime ;  and  he 
who  imbues,  by  set  purpose  at  first,  and  spontaneously 


THE    SCIENCE    OF    ETYMOLOGY.  347 

afterwards,  his  own  toils  on  earth  with  deep  inward 
gladness,  gives  wings  to  his  feet  in  climbing  towards 
the  holy  and  sublime,  and  charms  those  who  behold 
him  into  an  instinctive  imitation  of  his  happy,  soaring 
flight  on  high. 


INDEX  AND  MAPS. 


INDEX. 


Ablaut,  in  German,  147. 

Ach»menidian  Kings,  47. 

Acro-Corintlius,  2S3. 

AdelunK,  200. 

^olic  Dialect,  50,  51,  55,  62,  233. 

African  Lan.sua,u;es,  IS,  103. 

Agglutinative  Languages,  16-18. 

Agriculture,  51. 

Ahrens,  233. 

Alaric,  65. 

Albanian,  6.5-67,  99. 

Allahabad,  203. 

Alphabets,  27,  40,  48,  68,  119. 

Americanisms,  141-4. 

Anglo-Saxon,  188-144. 

Arabic,  20,  21-22,  47,  SS,  104. 

Ar.amajan,  20, 

Archaic  Forms,  3-35. 

Arian,  30-1. 

Armenian,  43,  198. 

Arnautic,  66. 

Aryavarta,  30. 

Asiatic  Society,  200,  205. 

Aspiration,  63,  76,  317. 

Attic  Dialect.  50,  67. 

Aufrecht,  241. 

Augustine,  21. 

Auxiliary  Verbs,  146. 

Avesta  Zend,  4.5. 

Axioms  (in  Etymology),  33-3. 


Babel,  193. 

Babylon,  23. 

Baltic  Sea.  114. 

Barth  the  Traveller,  103. 

Basque  Language,  102,  106, 110. 

Bechuana  Languages,  18. 

Belgium,  111,  1'44.' 

Senary,  230-2,  247. 

Benfev,  241. 

Benloew,  223. 

Bcrbens,  104. 

Berlin  Academy  of  Sciences,  199. 

Bhagavad  Gita,  204. 

Boetbius,  103. 


Bopp,  212,  219-225,  240,  293,  303. 

Brahma,  83,  89. 

Brahmanas,  84-5. 

Brahmins,  37,  203. 

Brittany,  110, 155. 

Buckle,  69,  283. 

Budaeus,  196. 

Buddhism,  38,  42. 

Bulgarians,  99,  118 ;  their  Language,  123. 

Bunsen,  28, 151,  174,  255. 

Burnouf,  227,  249. 

Buttmann,  214,  261. 

Byzantium,  67,  9-3,  105. 

Byzantine— Greek,  67, 101. 


C 


Cadmus,  816. 

C«sar,  109, 117. 

Camoens,  106. 

Carthaginians,  21, 101, 103,  298. 

Caste,  42. 

Castilian  Dialect,  102  :  poetry,  105. 

Castren,  17,  214. 

Catharine  IL,  199,  260. 

Caucasian  Languages,  16, 17. 

Celts,  66,  71,  101,  109, 134. 

Celtiberians.  101. 

Celtic,  28,  lol,  161. 

Charlemagne,  89,  93. 

Chinese  Language,  14,  15, 17, 168,  200. 

Christian  Names,  316. 

Christianity,  09. 

Cicero,  837.  q 

Cid,  Epic  of,  105. 

Classical  Discipline,  342. 

Climatology,  68,  80-31,  162. 

Colebrooke,  33,  203,  205,  248. 

Columbus,  309. 

Congo  Languages,  18. 

Consonantal  System,  22. 

Corvus  Valerius,  208. 

Croesus,  56. 

Cyclops.  283. 

Cyril  St.,  119. 

Cyrillic  Alphabet,  99,  119,  123. 

Cyrus,  56,  59. 

Curtius,  Ernst,  239. 

Curtius,  George,  236. 


352 


INDEX. 


Dacia,  100, 180. 

Danes,  130;  their  Language,  132. 

David,  104. 

Derived  Forms,  329. 

Deutsch,  53,  146. 

Devanagari  Alphabet,  36,  37,  40,  208. 

Development-theory,  16, 167-173. 

Dialects,  36,  41,  50,  66,  76,  85,  87-8,  98,  830. 

Diefenbach,  156,  234,  236. 

Diez,  92,  95,  96,  237,  246,  259. 

Digamma,  62,  316, 

Diversions  of  Etymology,  5,  230,  338,  343, 

346. 
Doderlein,  49,  261,  295,  297,  299. 
Donaldson,  14,  59,  71,  121,  249-252. 
Doric  Dialect,  50,  55,  233. 
Druids,  153. 
Dual  Number,  77. 
Duutzer,  234,  247. 
Dutch  Language,  144. 


£ 


East  India  Company,  203,  260. 

Edda,  132. 

Edomites,  254, 

Education,  35. 

Egyptian,  23;  Old  do.,  152. 

Eichhoff,  89,  228-30, 

Emigiations,  47,  71,  74,  91. 

Empiricism,  45,  49,  222,  238,  287-290. 

English,  134-144. 

Erasmus,  196. 

Ethnography,  199,  269-272. 

Etruscan.     (See  Tuscan),  70-74. 

Etymology :  Greek  love  for  it,  125 ;  Critical 

and     Uncritical     Methods,     238,  ^59 ; 

Science  of  it,  &c.,  277-347 ;  History  of 

it,  278-311. 
Etymologies :    Particular  ones,  83,  48,   73, 

110,  146,  217,  317-822,  835.— False  ones, 

288-9 
Eugubine  Tables,  78. 
Euphony,  817,  382-3. 


Ferdousi,  the  poet,  47. 
Flemish  Language,  144. 
Franks,  69,  109. 

French  Language,  108-113, 144. 
French  People,  109. 
Freund,  293-297. 
Frisic,  144,  213. 
Fritsch,  247. 


G 

Uabelentz,  17. 

Gadlielic  and  Gaelic,  157. 

Gallic,  110-111. 

Garnett,  255. 

Gascony,  110. 

Genesis,  162. 

Germans,  53,  86-7,  150. 

German  Language,  generally,  21,  104,  137. 

149;  its  Influence  on  Latin,  89-9.1. 
German,  High,  145-151;  Old  do.,  89,  147. 
German  Mind,  308. 


Gesenius,  21. 

Giese,  62,  230. 

Glago-litic  Alphabet,  124. 

Goths,  90. 

Gothic  Language,  65, 130,  151. 

Gnecia  Magna,  CO. 

Gra^co-ltalic  race,  48-112. 

Grammar,  19,  194;  Comparative,  325. 

Grammarians,  89,  40. 

Grammatical  Correspondence,  19,  73. 

Grammatical  Irregularities  Solved,  266-268. 

Greek,  Ancient,  48-70. 

Greek,  Modern,  64. 

Grimm,  147,  215;  his  Scale,  216,240,313; 

his   Dictionary,  307;   his    Scholarship, 

313. 
Guna,  231. 
Gutturals,  317. 
Gypsy  Language,  43-45,  53, 226. 


H 

Halhed,  203-4. 

Hamilton,  206. 

Harris,  256. 

Harrison,  134. 

Hastings,  Wavrren,  203. 

Heathenism,  68-70. 

Hebrew,  20,  22, 26,  104,  138,  197. 

Heliand,  145. 

Hellas   53 

Hellenes,  53 ;  Hellenic  Greek,  58-64,  7a 

Heroism  of  a  Student's  life,  209. 

Heyne,  261. 

Heyse,  242,  259. 

Hibernia,  101,  158. 

Hieronymus,  119. 

Hoefer,  232. 

Home-growth  of  Greeks,  36,  54-63. 

Home-growth  of  Eomans,  74. 

Homer,  83,  49,  61-62,  67. 

Hue,  35. 

Humboldt,  William,  102,  226. 


lapygian,  70-1. 

Iberians,  101. 

Icelanders,  114;  their  Language,  132. 

Iliad,  46,  62, 147. 

Illyrian,  65. 

India :  its  Climatology,  68-70. 

ludische  Bibliothek,  210. 

Indische  Skizzen,  243. 

Indische  Studien,  243. 

Inflection,  16. 

Inscriptions,  37,  45-7,  70. 

Inventiveness  of  men  small,  164-178. 

Ionic  Dialect,  50. 

Iran,  30,  45,  48,  158. 

Iranian,  45-48. 

Irish,  157-S. 

Italian,  87,  95. 

Italic  race,  50,  70-112. 


Jiikcl,  297. 

Jones,  Sir  Wm.,  151,  200,  203-4,  248. 

Judaism  and  its  influence,  26, 48,  59,  86, 


INDEX. 


353 


Kaltsclimidt,  234. 

Kemble,  25G. 

Klotz,  299. 

Koshas,  205. 

Kuhn,  A.,  241,243. 

Kyinric  Lauguages,  154, 156,  157. 


Language:  Divine  Origin  of,  16,  164-178; 
Impressibility  of.  So.  98 ;  History  of, 
258;  Philosophy  of,  259;  its  ImpLrish- 
ableness,  263 ;  its  Capacities,  341 ;  Plea- 
sure of  studying  it  philologically,  264-6. 

Languages:  (1.)  Monosyllabic,  15-6,  226; 
(2.)  Agglutinative,  15";  (3.)  Inflected,  18- 
200,  226;  Dead,  19,  144. 

Latham,  256. 

Latin:  its  Characteristics,  82-5;  its  History, 
83-97;  Specimens  of  its  different  phases, 
83,  84,  94;  its  relations  to  other  lan- 
guages, 281-4 ;  its  relations  to  the  Eng- 
lish, 278. 

Latinm:  its  Cllmatolosry.  79-82. 

Lautlchre  (phonetics),  218. 

Lautverschiebung,  94,  96,  147. 

Lecbish,  127. 

Liebnitz,  199. 

Lepslus,  40. 

Lettic,  113. 

oettish,  116-117. 

Lexicography,  specific:  History  of,  292- 
311;  Comparative  do.,  822-325. 

Lithuiinian,  113-116,317. 

Livingstone,  54. 

Lobeck,  299. 

Locative  Case,  77. 

Lombards,  89. 

Lord's  Prayer,  200. 

Low-German,  132-145. 

Lusiad,  106. 

Luther,  147,  196. 

Lyrics,  33,  104. 


M 

Macbeth,  805. 

Maci)herson,  153. 

Mahabaratah,  39,  204. 

Maltese,  23. 

Mantras,  84-35. 

Manx,  158. 

M.-iterialism,  162.    See  Climatology. 

Mechanical  Study,  211. 

Meyer,  Charles,  157. 

Middle  Aees,  85-90. 

Middle  Latin,  85-95. 

Moliammedism,  24,  47. 

Mommsen,  77,  239,  292. 

Monosvllabisni,  14-15, 163-174. 

Moors,"  103-104. 

MuUer,  Max,  173-5,  255,  259. 

Muretus,  197. 


Nature:  its  power  over  man,  46. 

matology.  Materialism,  &c. 
Niebelungen",  147. 


See  Cli- 


Niebuhr,  14,  60. 

Nork,  198. 

Normans,  134. 

Norse  Languages,  132-133. 

North  American  Languages,  15. 

Norwegian,  132. 


Objectivity,  82. 
Orthoepy,  140-142. 
Orthography,  140-142. 
Oscan,  51,  75-76. 
Ossetian,  4S. 
Ossian,  152. 
Ostrogoths,  89, 131. 


Pali  Language,  41-42. 

Panini,  the  Grammarian,  89. 

Parkhurst's  Dictionary,  198. 

Passow,  293,  300-301,  306. 

Pazend,  47. 

Pehlevi,  47. 

Pelasgian,  36,  53-64,  73. 

Persia,  25. 

Persian,  45-6,  88;  its  influence  on  Hellonic 
Greek.  58-60,  201. 

Peter  the  Great,  119. 

Philology:  its  condition  here,  8;  a  delight- 
ful study,  5;  its  influence  on  Ethnogra- 
phy, 57;  its  History,  194-280;  Classical 
Philology,  262. 

Philosophy,  Schools  of,  34. 

Phcenieia,  20,  25,  26,  27,  298. 

Phonetics,  38,  98,  106, 115, 117,  259.  Com- 
parative Phonology,  812-822,  326. 

Phonographv.  244. 

Pictet,  101,  157. 

Poland  and  the  Poles,  122, 127-8,  317. 

PolysylLibism,  15. 

Pompey,  117. 

Popery,  34,  80, 121. 

Portuguese,  87,  105-107. 

Pott,  255. 

Prakrit,  37,  41-12. 

Pratisakhyas,  38. 

Prepositions,  16,  IS,  63. 

Prichard,  28,  67, 151,  248-9,  231. 

Priests,  34,  37. 

Prosody  :  rules  of,  explainedj  67. 

Provence,  107.    Provenfal  Dialect,  107-8. 

Prussian,  Old,  116. 

Puranas,  33. 

Purley,  Divereions  of,  256,  302, 

Pushtu,  47. 


R 

R.ipp,  244,  332. 

Ramiiyana,  39. 

Kask,  17,  212,  215,  249. 

Kawlinson,  23. 

Kemus,  288. 

Reuchlin,  196. 

Reynouard,  108. 

Richter,  2S5. 

Rome  :  its  situation,  79-83. 

Romaic  Language,  67. 

Romanic  Languages,  87-112,  294 


354 


INDEX. 


Romance,  47,  lOS. 
Koman  Influence,  83 
llomulus,  288, 
Roots,  32T,  328,  833. 
Uoseii,  249. 
Itoss,  Ludwig,  292. 
I'.uskin,  109. 
Russian,  120, 12S. 


S 


Balmasias,  197. 

Sanilhi,  169. 

Sanskrit,  31-43;  its  Literature,  202,  229. 

Sappho,  104. 

Sassanides,  47. 

Saxon,  145. 

Scaligor,  197,  299. 

Schlejtel,  Augustus,  105,  210-2,  224. 

Schlegel,  Frederic,  206-9.  240. 

Schleicher,  67, 124,  234,  242.  259. 

Scholarship  (German,  219,  313),  384. 

Schwenck,  49,  297. 

Scriptures,  Indian,  33. 

Semitic  Languages,  19,  20-27,  43,  309. 

Servians,  12.5. 

Sibilants,  76,  118. 

Shakspeare,  135-6. 

Siksha,  38. 

Slavonic  Languages,  117-131. 

Solomon,  25,  83,  38. 

Spanish,  87,  100. 

State-Languages,  20. 

SubjectiTitv,  32. 

Swedish,  1.32. 

Syllabication,  316,  326. 


Tabular  Views,  lSl-90. 

Tatar  Lansuages,  16, 17. 

Teutonic  Grammar,  Grimm's,  215,  240. 

Tooke,  Ilorne,  206,  302. 

Traian,  100. 

Trench,  256. 

Troubadours,  107-8. 

Turanian  Lauguac;es,  16, 17,  43. 

Turkish,  17. 

Tuscans,  33,  254,  293. 


U 

Ulphilas'  Translation,  59,  215. 
Umbrians,  75-79, 
Umbro-Samuite  Dialects,  7C. 
Unity  of  the  Race,  162. 
Upanishads,  85. 


V 


Valpy,  49. 
Vandals,  101-105. 
Varro,  299,  337. 
Vater,  200. 
Vedas,  33  39,  202. 
Vienna,  260. 
Vindhya,  30. 
Visisoths,  90,  92, 131. 
Vossius,  299. 
Vriddhi,  233. 


W 

Wachter,  299. 

Wallachian,  87,  99-100, 112. 

"Weber,  243;  Sketch  by,  272. 

Webster,  Noah,  198,  293,  302-306. 

Weil,  Henri.  22.3. 

Welsh.  58-59, 157, 159-161. 

Whitnev,  Prof.,  38,  224. 

Wilkins'  Charles,  203,  248. 

Wilkius,  I.,  204 

Wilson,  H.  IL,  205-6,  248. 

Winning,  253-255. 


Yajnyas,  8. 


Zeitschrift  fur  Vergleich,  «tc.,  240 
Zend,  39.  45-46,  213. 
Zeuss,  236. 
Zoroaster,  81,  46. 


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For  the  sake  of  facilitating  in  every  -way  possible  the  study 
of  Philology  ia  this  country,  the  author  has  taken  pains  to  ob- 
tain a  list  of  prices  of  the  principal  authors  referred  to,  from  the 
two  firms  of  booksellers,  from  which  he  has  obtained  his  own 
supply  of  books,  and  whose  promptness  no  less  than  their  integrity 
he  is  happy,  from  long  experience,  to  commend. 

B.  Westermann  &  Co.,  No.  440  Broadway,  New  York,  will 
furnish  the  following  books,  unbound,  at  the  prices  named. 

Bopp's  Yergleichende  Grammatil:,  3  vols .$10  50 

Bopp's  Vokalismus 1  38 

Bopp's  Accentuations  System 1  75 

Bopp's  Grammatik  Der  Sanskrita-Sprache 2  25 

Bopp's  Glossarium  Sanskritum 6  00 

Rapp's  A''ergleicli.  Grammatik,  3  vols 5  00 

Grimm's  Teutonische  Grammatik,  5  vols 17  38 

Grimm's  Gescliichte  Der  Deutscli.  Sprache 3  50 

Diefenbach's  Gothisclies  Worterbuch,  2  vols 8  00 

Diefenbacb's  Celtica G  00 

Mommsen's  Romische  Geschichte 3  88 

Schleicher's  Linguist.  Untersuchungen 2  50 

Schleicher's  Litauische  Grammatik 1  75 

Heyse's  System  der  Sprachwissenschaft 2  25 

Diez's  Grammatik  der  Roman  Sprachcn G  G3 

Diez's  Lexicon  Etymologicum 3  50 

Pott's  Etymologische  P'orschungen.     1st  vol 4  38 

Aufrecht's  Umbrisch.  Sprachdenkmiiler 8  38 

Kuhn's  Beitrage  zur  Sprachforschung.     Per  vol 3  50 

Gesenii  Monumenta 10  50 

Gloss.  Med.  Latin,  (Du  Fresne,  Du  Gauge,  &c.) 18  00 

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Eichhofif  s  Vergleich.  der  Sprachen 2  75 

Humboldt's  Verschiedeuheit  der  Sprachen 3  50 


356 

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Curtius' Griechische  Etymologic.     Vol.1 2  38 

Benary's  Romische  Lautlehre 1  00 

Hoefer's  Beitrage  zur  Etymologic 2  25 

Diintzer's  Lehrc,  &c 1  25 

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Max  Miiller's  Survey  of  Languages i 1  50 

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Niebuhr's  Rome,  3  vols ^10  00 

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Brown's  History  of  Greek  Classical  Literature 1  75 

Brown's  History  of  Roman  Classical  Literature 1  75 

Donaldson's  New  Cratylus 5  50 

Donaldson's  Varronianus 3  50 

Bunsen's  Philosophy  of  Universal  History,  2  vols 9  00 

Bopp,  translated  by  Eastwick,  3  vols 16  00 

"Winning's  Comparative  Philology 3  00 

Monier  Williams'  Sanskrit  Grammar i  00 

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